BANNISTER, Albert George
| Service Number: | 1657 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 19th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Brentwood, Essex, United Kingdom., date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 7 April 1918, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 19 Jun 1915: | Involvement Private, 1657, 19th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Kanowna embarkation_ship_number: A61 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Jun 1915: | Embarked Private, 1657, 19th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Kanowna, Sydney |
Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
Albert George BANNISTER, (Service Number 1657) was born on 1 June 1885 at Brent Wood, England. By the end of 1912 he was working as an armature winder in the Randwick workshops of the Electric Tramways Branch. On 1 January 1917 he was promoted to, or the designation of his position was changed to, electrical fitter. This was a clerical process only, as Bannister had enlisted with the AIF on 24 May 1915 and left Australia a month later on 19 June.
Thus, untrained before he left Australia be spent some months training in Egypt and was never sent to Gallipoli. From Egypt he was transferred through Marseilles and was wounded at Boulonge with a gunshot injury to his left eye. Unfit for duty he was discharged to the 2nd Australian Division Base at Etaples while he recovered. Returning to the front lines he was wounded a second time in November 1916 with a gunshot to both hands and was transferred to the hospital train and evacuated to England. He remained in hospital and rehabilitation for the first half of 1917 though he was becoming undisciplined. He forfeited 50 days’ pay for being Absent Without Leave between 7 June and 28 June.
Eventually fit again he returned to France at the end of 1917, but on 7 April 1918 was reported wounded in action, for a third time, and later missing. A Court of Enquiry, held in September, found that he had been killed in action on 7 April 1918. Since his body was never recovered nor a grave identified, he is recorded on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France.
(NAA B2455-3048424)
Submitted 10 May 2023 by John Oakes
Biography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
He was 34 and the son of Richard and Emma Elizabeth Bannister He is remembered on the family grave in the churchyard at Mountnessing, Essex.
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