Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Stanley and Mary Finch, of "Caloola", Palmer St., East Orange, New South Wales, Australia.

Enlisted Sept., 1914.

In June 1913 Maurice travelled to England via Orsova. The purpose of the trip was to broaden his mind and advance his ideas in his trade of house painter.  A year after Maurice’s arrival in England war broke out, and by September 1914 Maurice had enlisted in the Kensington Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, Special Service Unit, for service abroad. Maurice enlisted at Shepherd’s Bush in London and did his training at Horsham in Sussex.

By May 1916 Maurice had spent seven months in the trenches of France. On 23 May he suffered a shrapnel wound to his foot and was transferred to England for x-rays. After his time in hospital he was sent to Edinburgh for furlough. In a letter home, written in September 1916, Maurice indicated that fighting in the battle he was injured in [presumably The Battle of Vimy Ridge] was fierce:

On the night I received my dose there were four men of my Company who received the DSM, one officer a DCO, and another a Military Cross.
Sergeant Maurice Walter Finch returned to France and was killed in action on 9 April 1917. In August 1917 his parents received the following details of his death:

8th Royal Fusiliers. — I saw Finch buried by some man who buried Lt. Vernon, on April 9th. It was just about our objective behind the German 4th lines, that he was shot down by a German sniper and in three minutes, three men (Lieut. Vernon, Finch, and another) were shot down by the same sniper, and in three minutes Finch was buried in a shallow grave.
Manner of death. — Lieut. Vernon walked towards the German lines to take prisoners, as the Germans appeared to surrender, and did so eventually, then Sgt. Finch and another corporal also came out of cover to help, but just before Sgt. Finch
reached Lieut. Vernon, Vernon was shot, and when the third man reached them, Finch was shot, then the other immediately after.

MAURICE FINCH KILLED.
The numerous friends of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Finch, of Palmer-st. Orange East, will deeply sympathise with them on the death in action of their son, Cpl. Maurice  Finch. Cpl. Finch, who was about 25 years of age, left Orange about four years ago for a tour of the United  Kingdom, in order to broaden his mind, and advance  him further in the newest ideas appertaining to his trade as painter. An energetic and enterprising young  man, immensely popular with all who knew him, he  was getting on well in England, when the clarion blast  of war smote on his ears, and he straightaway joined  the colors, enlisting in an English regiment. He was  only a short time in training when he was drafted into  the firing line in France, and saw probably more  fighting than any Orange soldier. Some months ago Cpl. Finch received a wound in the leg, which  necessitated his removal to an English hospital, and in  his letters which from time to time have been published in these columns, he has had nothing but  praise for the hospitality extended to him from the  English gentry. It is a staggering blow to his bereaved  parents and relatives, who were looking forward to  welcome him home as soon as ever the war had ended. But they have the one consoling thought to  comfort them, that their son died doing his duty to  them, Australia, the Empire, and his God, with his face  to the foe, like a true scion of the old stock of  British heroes who have fought and died for the dear  old flag since ever it floated in the face of Britain's  enemies. The proprietary of this paper extend to the bereaved parents their deepest sympathy in this the darkest hour of their lives.