Few will be aware that the first Australian casualty of the Great War on 1914 was William George Vincent Williams from 36 Beavers Road, Northcote. Williams had spent five years in the Naval Reserve and had just a week left to serve out his time when war was declared and he was commanded into full […]
Tag: Preston
World War 1 Casualty : William Wailes (Preston and Epping)
William Wailes served as 3952, Private, 23rd Infantry and was 23 years of age when killed in action at Lagnicourt, France on 20 March, 1917. His military career was unexceptional – perhaps one or two more run-ins with officialdom than the norm – but he was unusual in that he was one of five brothers […]
World War 1 Casualty : Francis Joseph Tarrant (Northcote)
(The image shows the Commanding Officers and Officers of No. 3 Squadron, pictured in 1917. Tarrant is on the far right of the back row.) Frank Tarrant from 135 Westgarth Street, Northcote was one in our files that served the country outside of the A.I.F. and just one or two that died as a result […]
World War 1 Casualty : Norman Brassey Pearce (Northcote)
Pearce’s family placed Notices suggesting he was killed in France on 19 July, 1916 – the Army disagreed, however, posting Pearce as a Deserter after he failed to embark in October, 1915. One of the more bizarre “deaths” in our archives. His family claimed he was killed on 19 July, 1916 – the Army, however, […]
World War 1 Casualty : James Munro (Australian Flying Corps) (Thornbury)
James Munro from 65 Pender Street, Thornbury was unfortunate to be captured by the Turks while acting as an Air Mechanic in support of British forces near Baghdad; his fate remains somewhat clouded; Although conditions in German prisoner-of-war camps were generally good until 1918 when the Allied blockade of shipping resulted in major food shortages, […]
World War 1 Casualty : Roy Hector Jones (Thornbury)
Some servicemen went through the War as humble privates and content with their lot. For commissioned officers, the pressures were significantly greater, and in the case of Captain Roy Hector Jones, just a little too much Roy Jones was a brother of Corporal Leslie Theophilus Jones, also Killed in Action; the duo from 21 Alexandra-street, […]
World War 1 Casualty : Harry Lowe (aka Henry Charles Lowe) (Preston)
The Great War attracted all types; the good, the bad and the ugly – and “Harry Lowe”, who we suspect in hindsight the A.I.F. may have wished had just stayed at home! To say Lowe, whose full name was Henry Charles Lowe, from Raglan Street, Preston, was a bit of a lad would be an understatement! […]
World War 1 Casualty : John Oliver Lamb
(The image shows part of the stained-glass window of the New Zealand War Memorial at the Auckland Museum where John Oliver Lamb is commemorated). Despite having three brothers enlist with the A.I.F., John Oliver Lamb (family at 138 High Street, Northcote) served with the New Zealand forces, dying in Greytown Military Hospital from unspecified wounds […]
World War 1 Casualty : Samuel Alfred Hulley (Preston)
The carnage at the Dardanelles and Western Front was horrendous, but sometimes the pressures and feeling of rejection of those that volunteered and were not accepted had an almost equally tragic result. Samuel Hulley is another not included in Australian War Memorial records. He was one of many anxious to do his bit for King […]
World War 1 Casualty : Phillip Fargher (senior) (Northcote)
From 28 South Crescent, Northcote, Phillip Fargher senior did not enlist, but played a significant role in the war effort as the local Area Commander of for Northcote training after a somewhat controversial law declaring compulsory home training was introduced by Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, on July 1, 1911. Like many Area […]