Scotland

A Fortuitous Incident




The dark haired soldier stood on the deck of HMAT Ulysses as it steamed into the harbour at Fremantle in Western Australia, on the afternoon of 7 March 1916. He had travelled further around the continent than he had expected after he had emigrated from Scotland four years before. Robert Hood was born in Saltcoats in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1887. It was a small coastal village, just north east of Ireland, near the Isle of Arran. His parents had both died, and he had left brothers and sisters at home to try out the prospects in Australia.