Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train in WW1 - a very confusing history

Question

Recently I've been looking at service files for Royal Australian Navy servicemen who served in the 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train in the Great War - they served at Gallipoli (and were the last Australian unit to leave Gallipoli) and in Egypt and Palestine.

Their attestation papers indicate they were under the impression they were enlisting as part of the AIF (which ended up being solely Army).

Looking at the unit history on the RAN site & Wikipedia, it looks like they were under the command firstly of the British Admiralty & then the British IX Army Corps. But it was on the recommendation of Australian Army Lt-Gen. Sir Harry Chauvel that they were disbanded.

All very confused - it seems authorities even lost track of who was supposed to be paying them after Gallipoli (the men "mutinied" after not being paid for over 5 weeks). And while the Australians were busy disbanding the unit, the British were still deploying it in an attack.

Answer 1

Have you tried contacting the Australian War Memorial with your query? My grandfather was in the Singapore Royal Engineers (Volunteer) a sub-unit of the Singapore Volunteer Corps (SVC), it wasn't until I contacted them directly that I was able to find anything about the unit. It's still sketchy but at least I have something to work with now. John Aaron Palmer Williamson (1892 - 1982) 

Answer 2

This page on the Navy's website https://www.navy.gov.au/history/feature-histories/1st-royal-australian-naval-bridging-train

gives a good history of the unit including why they wore the uniform they did, which was that of the AIF, although they still wore naval insignia, cap badges etc.  They were always considered sailors. It doesn't give the impression they were enlisting in the AIF/Army.  Charles' is listed on this page as 1 of 8 died in service. 

Comments

If you look at Charles Schanke's attestation papers on his service file (under Sources in his profile) you'll see it is identified as RAN with a subtext of Australian Imperial Force.

About 50 men who signed up for the RANBT, including Bracegirdle, the C.O., had been in the AN&MEF, which was a joint force taking control of German New Guinea. My suspicion is that initially the AIF might have been intended as a joint force too. (Clearly, it didn't happen.)