THE Anzac centenary has focused the spotlight on the unusual life of WWI Digger Guido Weber, grandson of the German ambassador to Australia, who went on to fight for Australia on the Western Front, came home to fight for Diggers' welfare and had a hand in the invention of the Hills Hoist.
His story has been written by Daphne Salt, his maternal granddaughter and long-time historian with Sutherland Shire Historical Society (SSHS).
Guido Fitz Leopold Cyril Weber was born in the Windsor area in 1879, and in his early career assisted his surveyor father in working on the Bulli and Macquarie passes and railway layouts.
Several of Guido Weber's ancestors were musicians and tutors to courts and kings in Europe.
One of his forebears was Constanze, who married Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and on her death was buried in Mozart's grave.
Guido's grandfather, Adalbert Arnold von Weber, was appointed as German ambassador to Australia, and with his wife Baroness Adelaide migrated here in 1854, bringing with them two children. One child was Guido's father.
Guido was a skilled artist and also became a school teacher, numbering among his students a young (later Sir) William Dobell.
At age 35 Weber left teaching, joined the AIF in WWI and was supervising anti-gas measures at the frontline.
In 1917, during a German shelling barrage at Passchendaele he was blown up and buried, but was dug out alive.
By the time of his medical discharge in 1918, Weber had gunshot wounds to the head and left leg, spinal injury and respiratory problems from being gassed and being buried in the Passchendaele mud.
While an intermittent patient at Randwick Hospital he came up with the idea of an organisation to look after the totally and permanently incapacitated (TPI) — men who had been badly injured in the war — along the lines of a recently formed group in Victoria.
Mr J. J. Murphy, a member of the Victorian Association, visited Hut 11 at Concord and spoke to them. Weber then got the ball rolling and organised the NSW branch of the TPI, he was foundation secretary/treasurer and took the minutes.
The inaugural meeting was held in July, 1934, with a foundation membership of 10. During the Depression years the members of the emergent TPI were very active.
Weber, as its secretary, managed to organise taxis and other transport for incapacitated men to attend the dawn services on Anzac day.
He stirred the cause for the shattered men and he fought for free medical attention for them. Weber and his TPI executive knocked on the doors of the retailers and managed to secure discounts for them and their families, Angus and Robertson and the Sydney City Council gave them books to begin their library.
After the war, Weber built a rotary clothes line out of timber and invited an AIF compatriot, a Mr Hill, home for refreshments one day. Mr Hill was extremely impressed by Weber's creation and when he went back to Adelaide he made one out of water pipe and took out a patent for his Hills Hoist.
Apart from the TPI, he was a foundation member and treasurer of the Sylvania branch of the Returned Soldiers and Soldiers Imperial League (later the RSL), and a member of the Guard of Honour for the royal visit of the Prince of Wales in 1920.
Guido Weber died in 1954.
* SOURCE: Daphne Salt
