PAGE, James Delhaunty
| Service Number: | 164 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 19 August 1914, Enlisted in Sydney. |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | 1st Field Company Engineers |
| Born: | Canterbury, New Zealand, 10 April 1886 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway fettler (track worker) |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 21 September 1916, aged 30 years |
| Cemetery: |
Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm) |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 19 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, 164, 1st Field Company Engineers, Enlisted in Sydney. | |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Oct 1914: | Involvement Driver, 164, 1st Field Company Engineers, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Afric embarkation_ship_number: A19 public_note: '' | |
| 18 Oct 1914: | Embarked Driver, 164, 1st Field Company Engineers, HMAT Afric, Sydney | |
| 21 Sep 1916: | Involvement Sapper, 164, 1st Field Company Engineers, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 164 awm_unit: 1st Field Company, Australian Engineers awm_rank: Sapper awm_died_date: 1916-09-21 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
James Delhaunty PAGE (Service Number 164) was born on 10th April 1886 at Canterbury, New Zealand. His first employment with the NSW Government Railways was as a relief fettler in the Permanent Way Branch in the Metropolitan Division from 15th August 1915. He resigned on 9th October but was re-employed in the same role on 9th December. In March 1914 his work was described as a ‘packer’, and in April as a ‘fettler’. This was his role when he was granted leave to join the Expeditionary Forces on 18th August 1914.
He enlisted at Sydney the next day, giving his ‘trade or calling’ as ‘Driver’, rather than any railway work. he claimed a year and a half’s service with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. Page was married and gave his wife, Gertrude Alice as his next of kin.
Allotted to the 1st Field Company of Engineers, Page embarked HMAT ‘Afric’ at Sydney on 18th October 1914. He ‘Proceeded to join Mediterranean Expeditionary Force 3-3-15, Alexandria’, followed by ‘Transferred from MEF to N.Z. and Aust. Convalescent Depot’ at Maadi, Egypt.
Later his wife stated that he had served in Gallipoli. His admission to the convalescent depot was for a septic ankle, and after this had cleared he re-joined the 1st Field Company of Engineers at Serapeum on 6th March 1916, followed very quickly by embarkation on ‘Ivernia’ at Alexandria for passage to the Western Front and France through Marseilles where he passed on 28th March. He was remustered as ‘Sapper’.
He was killed in action in Belgium on 21st September 1916. Sapper G H Willock stated:
‘I knew a man called Page in the 1st Field Company. His initial was “J” and he was with me in No. 4 Section. His name was “Jim” or we called him “Jim”. He was medium height, dark, with a moustache, and was a married man with seven children so he told me. He came from some country district in N.S.W., and was middle-aged.
I saw him after he was killed in the trenches at Ypres in September, 1916 at Ypres. It was about 18 – 20th September, 1916, as we went to the sector on 4/9/16, and he was killed about 14 days afterwards. I saw his dead body – he had been shot right through the head and killed instantly. I am quite sure it was he, and that he did not suffer. He was buried afterwards near the Railway Cutting.’
Page was buried at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground 1½ miles SSE of Ypres, though there was also a grave marked at Larch Wood Railway Cutting Cemetery. In 1921 the Larch Wood grave was opened and found to be empty, so the other grave was accepted, without opening, as Page’s resting place.
Pensions were awarded to Page’s widow, and to an adopted child, Hope Meria Ryan, and a child Neville John Page.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.