His father John Armstrong owned ‘Woodbury’ on the Moonee Swamp Rd.
Stewart, aged 18, had enlisted in June 1917 and arrived on the battle front in France in January 1918.
A gunner, he was assigned to the 11th Battery of the 4th Field Artillery Brigade, initially resisting the Germans.
The from August, they were supporting the infantry in the offensive culminating with the assault to secure the Hindenburg Line.
Lieutenant-General John Monash had taken command of the Australian Corps in May 1918, and in respect of the night of September 26, Monash records that “Apart from being the first occasion, I believe that it was also the only occasion during the war when our ‘mustard” gas shell was used.”
Gunner Armstrong “fired the first gas shell used by his battalion” in the bombardment starting in the night of September 26, 1918. (Bev Clancy, They are Remembered, Deniliquin Genealogy Society, 2015, pp 9-11.)
Whether from that night or enemy mustard gas attacks on other occasions, Stewart suffered lasting effects from gas warfare.
There is no evidence that Gunner Armstrong ever encountered General Monash, Australia’s most famous military commander.
But if they had met, they could have chatted about life on the plains of the southern Riverina.
General Monash might have told Stewart about his meeting with Ned Kelly in Jerilderie.
Monash’s parents owned a store in Jerilderie from 1875 to 1882.
In early 1878 Monash, aged 12, chatted to Kelly when his father purchased a horse from Ned.
Monash was back at school in Melbourne when Kelly’s gang returned to Jerilderie in 1879 to rob the bank.
On his return from WWI, Stewart worked on ‘Woodbury’ and resumed his favourite sporting activities, cricket, and horse race riding, excelling at both.
Stewart was described as a man “of sterling qualities ... very popular among a wide circle of friends’.
He had been the most successful rider at the Southern Riverina Picnic Turf Club meeting in 1920.
Stewart and my father, Don S Henderson - both born in 1898 - were good friends.
At the Deniliquin Picnic Races in 1922, they hatched a plan.
Riding to the starting post for the President’s Gift, the fifth race on the second day, Don and Stewart agreed that if Don’s horse Eileen R was struggling “and he had a chance of letting (Stewart, riding Dados) up on the rails” he would do so.
This is exactly how the race evolved, but when Stewart called out “Keep out, Don”, he was unable to do so - hemmed in by another horse, Glen Song.
Stewart’s horse Dados must have clipped the hind legs of Don’s horse, stumbled, and Stewart was thrown to the turf.
Tragically Stewart died two days later from the injuries sustained in the fall.
The plan to let Stewart through on the rails and the call to “Keep out, Don” were revealed in Don’s candid evidence at the coroner’s inquest (The Independent, 5 May 1922, p.2.).
I knew nothing of this tragic event when my father died in 1965.
Twenty year-olds are not much interested in family history.
Even if I had known, I doubt I would have had the courage to ask my father about the race and their plan.
This tragic event must have haunted my father for years.
In the wake of Stewart’s death, his younger brother AA ‘Bill’ Armstrong finished at Caulfield Grammar School in Melbourne, aged 16 1922, and returned to ‘Woodbury’.
Bill subsequently became the Victorian Racing Club official starter from 1952 to 1969, and in 1965-69 a member of the House of Representatives for the Riverina electorate.
