Grant Moritz Michaelis was born on 23 December 1895 in St Kilda, Melbourne, the eldest son of Rosetta Bloom (née Phillips) and Edward Jonas Michaelis. Rosetta’s father, Louis, had been President of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, whilst Edward’s father, Moritz, had a flourishing tannery business: Michaelis, Hallenstein & Co. (see separate entry of Eric Blaubaum) that also pioneered the Australian glue industry. Grant attended Wesley College and Geelong Grammar School, 1910-12, after which he sailed to England, where he studied electrical engineering with Messrs Allen Brothers of Bedford, then joined the family firm in London. He also enlisted in the Territorial Force as a Sapper in the 1st East Anglian Field Company (Royal Engineers), and was commissioned in the 2nd East Anglians on 21 December 1912.

Grant was promoted Lieutenant on 31 March 1914 and, on the outbreak of war, was mobilized on 5 August. His unit remained in England for a year, and was then sent to Gallipoli with the 54th (East Anglian) Division to reinforce the offensive from Suvla. Despite the subsequent relatively quiet lull, on 23rd September 1915, while repairing part of a trench in the ANZAC area, he was mortally wounded by a Turkish sniper and died later that day.

Not yet 20 years old, Lt Grant Moritz Michaelis of 1/2nd East Anglian Field Company Royal Engineers, was buried that night by some of the NCOs and men of his section, in the 7th (Australian) Field Ambulance Cemetery, Gallipoli. His parents had his headstone inscribed:

TO LIVE IN HEARTS WE LEAVE BEHIND IS NOT TO DIE

Conditions on Gallipoli defy description. The terrain and close fighting did not allow for the dead to be buried. Flies and other vermin flourished in the heat, which caused epidemic sickness. In October 1915, winter storms caused much damage and human hardship, and in December, a great blizzard – followed by a cataclysmic thaw – caused casualties of 10% (15,000 men) throughout the British contingent (and no doubt something similar on the Turkish side). Of the 213,000 British (i.e. allied) casualties on Gallipoli, 145,000 were due to sickness – the chief causes being dysentery, diarrhoea, and enteric fever.

At the same time Lt Michaelis died, Australian journalist Keith Murdoch arrived in London to “expose the scandal in Gallipoli” and this set in-train a course of events that ultimately led to the evacuation in December 1915-January 1916.

* Grant’s brother served in the British Army in WW1, Lt Roy Michaelis of the Royal Garrison Artillery and in the Australian Army in WW2. Three cousins served in WW1: Gnr Frank Moritz Michaelis, DoI 14/5/1917; Lt Dalbert Hallenstein, KIA 1/9/1918 – see their separate entries; and Lt (later Sir) Archie Reuben Louis Michaelis, who served in the British Army.