CHINESE CONNECTION WITH GALLIPOLI ; MOTHER ASKED TO PAY SIXPENCE , SIGNS WRONG .

A handmade poppy  from  Magnetic Island , Queensland , has  been  placed at  the Gallipoli Lone Pine Cemetery  honouring  Private James  Albert   Sooning ,  whose  father was  William  Soon  Hing .  A major  road  bearing  his  Anglicised  surname  is  named  after   him  on   the   island.

The superb Dinkum Anzacs  Exhibition at the Magnetic Island History and Crafts  Centre  honours him  thus :   

 

 

 Four days  after war  was declared ,  Sooning  joined  the   Kennedy  Regiment , saw garrison  duty on Thursday Island,  joined the ANMEF  force which took German New Guinea, but did  not see active service there .  Returning  to Townsville , he  joined the AIF, went  to Egypt and  then to  Gallipoli. 

A brother, George , an  upholsterer, served in France, suffered trench fever, was shot in the  back  on October 6, 1918 , and  returned  home , his name also included on  the Townsville West State  School  Honour  Roll.  In George's war record   his   surname is given as  both    Soon   Hing  and  Sooning .

 

On enlistment , James  Sooning  was  described as  being  5ft 6inches  talls,  weighed  8 stone 10  pounds , a  Presbyterian.   

In 1920 a letter was sent to his mother , who  had remarried , living in Livingstone Street ,West End ,Townsville ,  from Major J.M. Lean, officer in charge of  Base Records ,Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, asking for information regarding the bloodline of   Private Sooning ,  apparently to  determine  to whom  medals  should be  sent . She  replied  his  father had   died  20 years  ago.

 In 1921 she  received an On Memorial scroll and a King's Message in connection with " the late No. 2001", Private  Sooning  . The  following year  she  received  a further  letter,  from  Victoria Barracks ,  addressed to  Dear Sir or Madam ,  informing her  that still  in stock were  a few hundred  copies of  the pamphlet   " Graves  of  the  Fallen," a free issue of which   had been sent to  the  nominated  next of kin . These , it  pointed out , had nothing to do with the  actual photographs of  the graves of the  military cemeteries  or  the types of headstones that would generally appear  when  completed  by  the Imperial War Graves Commission."Should  you so desire , additional  copies will be sent to  another  address , post free, on receipt  of the sum  of  sixpence (6d.) per copy. Postage stamps will be accepted in payment ."There is a note in archives that postage stamps were  provided .

Sooning's  mother  received a  war pension of 26 pound ($52)  a year soon after the death  of  her son. Little Darwin  inspected the  Sooning  Street intersection  with Yates Street  on  the  island  and  found  the  signs were  pointing  the  wrong  way.

Sooning  Street