The son of Charles William Corbett (1852–1915),[1] and Emma Corbett (1851–1897), née Foyle,[2][3] Archibald Gladstone Corbett was born on 18 August 1883.
He was lost overboard on 25 June 1920 while travelling back to Australia following his service in the First AIF.[4]
Melbourne University's's football team for the annual (inter-varsity) match against University of Adelaide, played in Adelaide on 12 August 1914 (Corbett is at the far left of second row).
While at Ormond, he was a prominent footballer. He played with the university's team in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association; and, as well, he played seven senior games with the university's team in the VFL competition: four games in 1912 (rounds 5, 6, 7, and 8), and three games in 1913 (rounds 2, 15, and 17).
He was a member of the university's inter-state team in 1914;[7][8] and was awarded a blue for football.[9]
Enlisting in the First A.I.F. immediately on graduating, at the age of 34, he served as a medical officer during World War I with the Australian Army Medical Corps (A.A.M.C.), and remained in England after the war to work in London hospitals.[12][13]
Death
He died at sea in 1920 after "disappearing" from his cabin on the night of 25/26 June 1920 – he was last seen around 12:30 in the early morning of 26 June 1920, near the coast of Toulon – while returning to Australia from England on the RMS Orontes.[14]
According to the documents contained within his Service Record, and a search of the ship revealed that no trace of him was found. On the basis of the evidence given to the military Court of Inquiry conducted on 26 June 1920 – by five witnesses, two of whom had known him at Melbourne University – combined with the contents of a note left at the head of his bed,[15] the concluded three things:
(a) he had been seen, alive and in person, on the vessel on the previous evening;
(b) a thorough search had revealed that he was no longer on the vessel,
(c) that he was dead, and nothing else.
Documents contained within his Service Record (p. 60) show that the Officer-in-Charge of Base Records of the Defence Department, one Major J. M. Lean, as part of the routine bureaucratic process, submitted the following (on 6 August 1920) to his superiors:
"The evidence discloses that Captain A.G. Corbett, A.A.M.C., disappeared from the transport "Orontes" on the night of the 25th./26th. June 1920, when that vessel was at sea, 130 miles from Toulon, France, so he can only reasonably be presumed to have thrown himself overboard —this is borne out by the letter he left before disappearing – and is dead. Recommend that he be recorded as "drowned at sea – suicide".
The superior officer to whom Major Lean's (idiosyncratic and unsubstantiated by any of the documentary evidence) version of the Court's findings were referred was Brigadier General Cecil Henry Foott, the Deputy Adjutant General. Foott approved the findings, with the single, hand-written proviso that Corbett's death was "to be recorded as drowned at sea", dated 12 August 1920 (at p. 60; and at p. 92 "suicide" has been crossed out, with the annotation "Deleted D.A.G. ruling").[16][17]
^"Have had insomnia for over six weeks past. For past two veronal has been used but is now having no effect. Can only see myself going mad which is intolerable so better to go overboard. The depression is unbearable. Corbett."
^Note the complete omission of any reference to "suicide"; however, and despite this, the War Memorial's Honour Roll, rather than either "lost at sea" or "drowned at sea", continues to unjustly and inexplicably record his "Cause of Death" as "suicide".
^Within any bureaucratic process, it doesn't matter who recommendswhich. The only thing that matters is what is finally approved. In the case of Corbett, it is unequivocally clear from the notation placed upon the Instructions – by the superior officer (to whom the inquiry's "findings" were submitted) – as to the actual wording of the way in which his death was to be officially recorded. Further, it is significant that this specific wording was "confirmed by C. H. Foott, Brigadier General, Deputy Adjutant General": namely, "adjudged to have been drowned at sea" (p.26; p.37). N.B. no mention of "suicide".
References
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