NELSON, James William
| Service Number: | 143 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 3 October 1914, Holsworthy, New South Wales |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 10th Field Artillery Brigade |
| Born: | Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, 13 July 1882 |
| Home Town: | Coonabarabran, Warrumbungle Shire, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Carpenter |
| Died: | War Service related illness, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 31 March 1921, aged 38 years |
| Cemetery: |
Field Of Mars Cemetery, Ryde, NSW Roman Catholic Section E 547 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Coonabarabran War Memorial Clock Tower |
World War 1 Service
| 3 Oct 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 143, 7th Light Horse Regiment, Holsworthy, New South Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Dec 1914: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 143, 7th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ayrshire embarkation_ship_number: A33 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Dec 1914: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 143, 7th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Ayrshire, Sydney | |
| 15 May 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 143, 7th Light Horse Regiment, ANZAC / Gallipoli | |
| 1 Jun 1918: | Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 10th Field Artillery Brigade | |
| 6 May 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sergeant, 143, 10th Field Artillery Brigade | |
| 31 Mar 1922: | Involvement AIF WW1, Sergeant, 143, 10th Field Artillery Brigade , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 143 awm_unit: 39th Australian Field Artillery Battery awm_rank: Sergeant awm_died_date: 1921-03-31 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Edwards
"Sergeant Nelson was gassed four times while serving as a gunner in France. All five Nelson brothers were seriously wounded on the Western Front with injuries including gunshot wounds and a number of conditions like bronchitis and severe nephritis. The sisters said the toll was incomprehensible when compared to the safety of their childhoods. It was while serving as a gunner in France in charge of a field artillery battery, that the sister's grandfather Sergeant Nelson was gassed four times.
"This does the most terrible things to your mucous membranes, to your lungs and not to mention your brain and I just can't imagine what his suffering must have been," Ms Ferguson said. But it did not end there... Sergeant Nelson also contracted tuberculosis and rheumatic fever before returning home with what was then referred too as shellshock.
"My own grandfather was declared insane at a time when that was a matter of great shame in families," Ms Ferguson said.
"All of those cataclysmic events came straight back home to little old Coonabarabran in north-western New South Wales.
"The impact of that can't be underestimated."
Ms Ferguson said her mother's only memory of her father was when she was about two years old and they lived on a Soldier Settlers block in a tent.
"Jim would go with his loaded rifle in the middle of the night because he imagined the enemy were coming to get his wife and children," she said.
Sergeant Nelson died in 1922, just eight years after enlisting as a 32-year-old carpenter at Holsworthy in NSW.
"There is anger, there is frustration at this waste," Ms Ferguson said.
"I don't understand the psychology of grieving for somebody I never knew but that is what I do." - SOURCE (www.abc.net.au)
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