One of the memorable and enjoyable events that occurred on Lemnos in 1915 for the thousands of Anzacs and other Allied soldiers who came there after being evacuated from the Peninsula at the end of the Gallipoli campaign was the celebration of Christmas.
Debilitated and tired after months in the Peninsula's trenches, taking part in murderous battles, suffering shelling and subject to rampant diseases, Christmas on Lemnos brought a well deserved return to a small part of normality to the soldiers.
On Christmas Eve many soldiers received two gifts donated by thoughtful Australians - the famed Christmas Billies, filled with various goodies from home - and a Christmas Pudding between each groups of two diggers.
My research into the Lemnos and the Gallipoli campaign has revealed the origin of these Christmas Puddings - the famous Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory in Port Melbourne!
A Port Melbourne Pudding for a Port Melbourne Digger
I was recently reading about one digger, Captain Goeorge Furner Langley of the 21st Battalion. A high school teacher before the war, 24 year old George had been born in Port Melbourne, his parents living in Bay Street.
He sailed from Australia on the troopship Ulysses - named after Homer's great warrior and wanderer - as part of the Second Convoy. His ship departed from Port Melbourne in December 1914. I would think that his parents would have been in the enthusiastic crowd that waved them off from the pier.
George would survive injury in the torpedoing attack on the troopship Southland in the waters off Lemnos in September 1915 as they for Lemnos and Gallipoli.
After the evacuation of the Peninsula, George returned with his unit to Lemnos and its great Anzac Rest Camp near the village of Sarpi on the western shores of Mudros Bay.
It was here that George and his comrades enjoyed the arrival of their Christmas Billies and Christmas Puddings - like little children with Christmas stockings he later wrote home.
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| Australian soldiers enjoying Christmas on Lemnos, 1915. AWM |
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| The distinctive Christmas Billie Tin. AWM |
It was in one of his letters home that I discovered his reference to the source of the puddings, made by the famous Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory in Port Melbourne. Each pudding was donated by an individual, a card with their name accompanying each pudding. George wrote that he and his men wrote back to each of these donors to thank them for their gift.
He also writes that the men received a parcel of shirts and handkerchiefs, a gift from the factory's Working Bee. He also wrote a letter thanking a Miss Holmes, the Secretary of the Working Bee.
Christmas Day was enjoyed on Lemnos, with concerts, church parades and dinners, with music from military bands and the singing of carols and other songs by the soldiers well into the night.
Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory
The Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory was the first biscuit company to be established in Australia. Founded by Englishman Thomas Swallow in 1854 and located in Port Melbourne, the factory would grow to be the fifth largest biscuit company in the world.
Some of its famous brands were Marie Biscuits, Uneeda and many more. The company also sourced fruit and vegetables from Mildura, Mooroopna, Kyabram and Wandin in country Victoria, and sugar from Queensland. The factory building was located within the boundary of Rouse, Stokes, Beach and Princes Streets Port Melbourne. The company was taken over by the Australian Biscuit Company in 1964 and later Arnotts. The factory where George Langley's Christmas Pudding was made is no more but the building remains, converted for residential use.
Lemnos and Port Phillip
This is just another little known connection between the Port Phillip area and Lemnos. Many soldiers and two nurses from the area enlisted and served on Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign. Now we know that the puddings a received by the weary diggers on Lemnos were made by the workers of Port Phillip.
this only reinforces the importance of the location of our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial at Lemnos Square in nearby Albert Park - not far from Bay Street Port Melbourne were George Langley grew up.
Enjoy your Christmas Pudding and think of Lemnos
So this Christmas if you sit down and enjoy some Christmas Pudding and custard, think of the workers of the Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory in Port Melbourne making the puddings for the diggers on Lemnos - and the enjoyment of the same diggers as they enjoyed them on Christmas Eve, on the shores of Mudros Bay, Lemnos.
More Information
For more information on George Langley see Alan Gregory (ed.), Langley’s Letters, Langley, Courtis, Thompson Library Trust, April 2015. For information on the Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory see the following websites:
Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society
Trust Advocate;
Thomas Swallow - ADB
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
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