Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold Francis Cohen was born on the 1st of December 1887 to Rabbi Francis Lyon Cohen VD and Rose Cohen (nee Hast) in London England. His father Rabbi Francis Cohen was the first Rabbi to serve as a Rabbi in the British Army and moved his family to Sydney Australia in 1905 when he was appointed the Chief Minister of the Synagogue of Sydney in 1904.

Harold joined the 13th Middlesex (Queens Westminster) Volunteers briefly before arriving in Sydney Australia with his family in 1905. He studied engineering at the University of Sydney and enlisted into the Corp of Australian Army Engineers on the 16th of August 1909 with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He promoted to Captain of the 16th of November 1914. Harold marries his fiancé Olive Hill in early 1915 and has one son Geoffrey Francis Cohen, born on the 8th of August 1917. Enlisting into the Australian Imperial Forces on the 21st of June 1915 and deploys to Egypt in September 1915 with the 1st Australian Divisional Engineers for service in the Great War. Francis then developed rhematic fever in Egypt and had to return to Australia for medical treatment in September 1916. His service was terminated within the Australian Imperial Forces and he returns to the militia and civilian employment.

In 1926 he is promoted to the rank of Major. By 1935, his first marriage has ended in divorce, and he marries Dorothy Maynard in 1936. With the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1940, Harold is returned to permanent part time service, returning to full time service in 1942. On the 31st of July 1943, he is put on the retired list with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he served all his time in Australia.

Harold died in 1968, he was survived by his second wife Dorothy, and his son from his first marriage Geoffrey Francis Cohen.

While Harold was recuperating in hospital in 1916 he wrote this poem –

SYDNEY AND ANZAC

In Sydney Town, in Sydney Town, beneath a brilliant sky, 

I saw a brown battalion as it went marching by.

The sun shone on their bayonets, their standards felt the breeze,

With parting cheers and sighs and tears to speed them o’er the seas,

For God and King and Country!

I saw the mothers, sisters, wives, and sweethearts in array:

Their hearts were filled with pride and fear, upon that sunny day.

The blaring of the trumpets, and the tramp of marching feet,

The lilt of an old chorus caused those eager hearts to beat

For God and King and Country!

Full many a moon of doubt and fear and pride has passed away

Since last I saw those young brown men and heard the music play;

And cables from Gallipoli have told the tale full well,

Of how they strove and gamely fought, and fighting, - bravely fell,

For God and King and Country

And some of them rushed onwards, and some-ah, well we know-

Were left upon the slippery grass, their faces to the foe.

But all of them have proved their worth with deeds of great renown,

And to our children’s children will we hand the story down,

Of how our boys across the seas had fought for Sydney Town,

-For God and King and Country N. S. Wales.

Capt. H. F. Cohen

References –

NSW BDM Website

NAA Website

NLA Trove Website

S Cox, PM, Sept 2023