The Hoschke Family in WW1

In the lead up to the centenary of Australia’s involvement, it is interesting to consider the impact of World War 1 on the family noting that Amandus was born in Germany. He arrived in Australia in 1863, married here, had 13 children and was naturalised in 1902. Then in 1914 Australia went to war with Germany. Two of his sons enlisted in the Australian army at that time.

Impact of German Heritage
1. The story is that the local policeman came to the farm, had a cup of tea with Amandus and took his firearms away. In those days all the farmers had guns. It sounds very much like the case of “rules are rules”. Amandus had lived at Upper Orara, as a landowner, for around 28 years by then and the policeman probably knew all the local farmers and their backgrounds.
2. A security check was run on Ernest as he was employed by the government and was the son of a German. His occupation was lineman [telephone lines]. From ‘Depositions of Enemy Subjects in the Public Service’ by the ‘Special Intelligence Bureau, (Central Office) Melbourne’. Source is National Archives of Australia website.
3. At some stage Albert changed his name to Hoskins presumably to avoid his loyalty being questioned.

Enlistment Details
Two of Amandus’s sons enlisted in the army. It is interesting to that they were both in their thirties and were not big men.

	Albert	Ted
Age	35 years	33 years
Height	159 cm	166 cm
Weight	72 Kilograms	77 Kilograms
Date	2 August 1915	7 October 1915

Albert was classed as a natural born British subject (having been born in Australia) and Ted as natural born or naturalised.

Source

Albert was invalided out of the army due to an ankle injury. The injury occurred eight months earlier at the Cockatoo Naval Dockyards.

Albert Hoschke

Ted served as a gunner, in the artillery, in France. He was in the 5^th Field Artillery Brigade which was part of the 2^nd Division until being discharged, at the start of 1917, as medically unfit.