British born, Oswald Samuel Blows went to the Somme as an Australian soldier and fought through the Australian Imperial Force’s toughest battle at Pozieres. Blows emigrated to Australia from East Anglia in the autumn of 1910. He settled in Western Australia. Learning about the outbreak of war in the bush, on 19 October 1914 he enlisted in the 10th Australian Light Horse, but left the army a month later. On 4 March 1915, Blows re-enlisted in the 28th Battalion as an infantry soldier. From Blackboy Hill camp, he went to Egypt and by 10 September was at Gallipoli. After he contracted jaundice, he was evacuated to Malta in November. He rejoined his battalion in Egypt in January 1916 and went with them to France on 19 March. As part of the 2nd Australian Division, the 28th Battalion entered the line west of Armentieres on 9 April. They served there, and near Ypres, until they moved to the Somme in July. On 23 July the 1st Australian Division captured Pozieres after four previous British attempts had failed. 2nd Australian Division attempted to continue the advance six days later. But, as Blows recorded in his diary, the attack was defeated with heavy casualties. A renewed attempt on 4 August was more successful. At the end of October, the 28th Battalion returned to the Somme and on 5 November Blows took part in an assault on Gird Trench to the north-west of Flers. He was wounded in the leg and sent back to a hospital in Britain. After further periods of service in Britain and in Flanders, Blows fought again on the Somme in April and August 1918. The following year he went back to Australia but he later returned to Britain where he died in 1980.
