S14491 / 73403
POOLE, Gilbert Graham
| Service Number: | 380 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 May 1916, Adelaide, SA |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 5th Machine Gun Battalion |
| Born: | Berwick, Victoria, Australia, 21 October 1896 |
| Home Town: | Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Adelaide High School, Mount Gambier High School, Adelaide University |
| Occupation: | Student |
| Died: | 11 July 1977, aged 80 years, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Centennial Park Cemetery, South Australia Lych Gate, Wall 49, Niche E008 |
| Memorials: | Adelaide High School Great War Honour Board, Adelaide University of Adelaide WW1 Honour Roll, Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Roll of Honor (2) |
World War 1 Service
| 15 May 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 380, 8th Machine Gun Company, Adelaide, SA | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 380, 8th Machine Gun Company, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Commonwealth embarkation_ship_number: A73 public_note: '' | |
| 19 Sep 1916: | Embarked Private, 380, 8th Machine Gun Company, HMAT Commonwealth, Melbourne | |
| 11 Nov 1918: | Involvement Sergeant, 380, 5th Machine Gun Battalion | |
| Date unknown: | Wounded 380, 8th Machine Gun Company |
Help us honour Gilbert Graham Poole's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
380 Gilbert Graham POOLE was born at Berwick, Victoria, on 21 October 1896. He was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 9 October 1908 by his father, Robert Murton Poole, storekeeper, of Railway Terrace, Mount Gambier. A report in the Border Watch in 1912 stated he had won a scholarship to Adelaide High School ‘tenable for two years … free tuition and an allowance of £40 per annum’.374 In early 1916 the Border Watch reported that he had been a student at Adelaide University and he had enlisted:
Unfortunately it was found necessary for him to undergo an operation to permit him going on with his military training. The operation was performed in the Queen Mary Hospital, and was successful.375
He enlisted in Adelaide on 15 May 1916 (19, Adelaide University student, single, Presbyterian) naming his mother, Mrs Grace Mary Poole of Mount Gambier, as his next of kin. He embarked from Melbourne on the ‘Commonwealth’ on 19 September 1916, disembarked at Plymouth in England on 14 November, and was attached to the Machine Gun Training Depot.
He was sent overseas to France on 1 March 1917 and joined the 8th Machine Gun Company on 17 March. He was severely gassed during an enemy bombardment near Aubigny in France on 17 April 1918, was evacuated to England on 20 April, and released to furlough from 5 to 19 August. He did not re-join his unit (which had been redesignated the 5th Machine Gun Battalion) until 1 November 1918, just before the armistice. He went on leave to Paris from 8 to 21 April 1919 and left for England on his return. He was granted leave in England from 1 May to 1 November 1919 to find out about ‘turbine works’, and then left England on the ‘Aeneas’ for return to Australia on 22 November 1919. Disembarking on 6 January 1920, he was hospitalised at Keswick from 7 to 19 January 1920 before being discharged ‘medically unfit’ on 12 March 1920.
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