Barwon, Bread and the British War

What is the connection between this British World War One poster and a Barwon member?

In December 1916 the Ministry of Food Control was established in Britain with their biggest issue the shortage of bread and grain; just six weeks supply was available. German submarines were sinking merchant ships headed to Britain in an attempt to starve the nation into submission and to destroy morale. 

In Australia, there had been a record wheat harvest in 1915-16, but shipping shortages had made the crop virtually unsaleable. The Australian government had established the Wheat Board in 1916 at the same time that the American wheat harvest had failed. The British government then agreed to buy the entire Australian wheat crop. Within two months the Australian government had passed legislation that allowed the Australian Wheat Board to control all shipping and marketing of wheat to Britain.

By early 1917 the shipping shortage was so severe that the wheat was left to moulder on wharves and there were plagues of mice and weevils. Between December 1916 and June 1917, 1,274,497 bags of wheat had been shipped from Geelong and more than 3 million bags were stockpiled at North Geelong station and Corio Quay.

Barwon Rowing Club member, Alexander Ritchie, was a clerk with the Dalgety and Co. Geelong office, with responsibility for finding ships to take the wheat to Britain. On Monday 30 July 1917, Alexander left Geelong by steamer on a short break, intending to travel around the company's agents in the Wimmera and Mallee districts. The next day he was seen at the Goldsbrough Mort annual ram sales in Melbourne, and then never again.

Another Barwon member, James Francis Guthrie, was the Geelong manager at Dalgety. On Saturday 28 July Alexander met him for lunch, where his boss advised him to take a short holiday. Since the beginning of the year he had been working seven days a week and was complaining of headaches and feeling "off-colour" and depressed. His job had been made even more stressful when in the middle of June that year the amount of wheat waiting in the rail yards to be offloaded into the stockpiles had reach 30 truckloads. The shipping agents' clerks had started to unload the trucks themselves, although apparently Alexander refused to participate. The union for 'wheat lumpers' promptly declared the wheat "black" and went on strike, putting at risk any future shipments from Geelong.

On the Monday following his meeting with Guthrie, Alexander boarded the steamer to Melbourne and was seen disembarking there, but strangely left his suitcase behind on the boat. His brother, William Ritchie, Barwon's former Treasurer, was informed of his disappearance by telephone at his home near Camperdown 3 days later and immediately starting making enquiries in Geelong, Portarlington and Melbourne. He even searched all the A.I.F. camps in case his brother had enlisted. No trace of him was ever found and it was thought at the time that he had either lost his memory or had drowned. Over the ensuing years his bank account remained untouched and a search of his lodgings revealed no clues as to his mental state.

In June 1925 the Supreme Court of Victoria granted probate on his estate, on the presumption that Alexander was dead. They made no finding on how he could have met his demise.