Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Theile was one of seven children born to Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Thiele and Mary Paulina Thiele of Yorketown, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. He was born in Sutherlands with his birth estimated to be in August 1891. All his siblings except his older sister were born in Kapunda, South Australia, he, and his sister were the exceptions by being born in Sutherlands. Herbert was around average height, being 5’8” or around 172cm at enlistment, with brown eyes and hair described as dark, and a complexion described as fresh. He was a labourer, so he would have been strong and fit. He enlisted with two of his brothers, Benno Herman, and Ewald Edgar, on the 23rd of March 1916 at the age of 24 years and 7 months, and he was not married according to his enlistment form. He was first assigned to the 2nd Depot Battalion with the regimental/service number of 1179.

After eight days in the 2nd Depot Battalion, the three brothers were transferred to the 43rd Battalion, assigned to D Company and undertook rudimentary training. 

On June the 9th 1916, the 43rd Battalion embarked from Outer Harbour, Adelaide, South Australia, on board HMAT A19 Afric. The transport ship sailed to England via Egypt and the Suez Canal with a possible stop in Marseille with records saying multiple members of the Battalion disembarked there on the 20th of June 1916. It is unknown when the Battalion arrived in England, but it can be surmised that it would have been near the end of June or around the start of July. On the 14th of July, Herbert Frederick Thiele was confined to barracks for 7 days for ‘failing to report for duty, answered back when spoken to by superior officer’. This would have happened around the time the 43rd was thought to have joined up with the rest of the 11th Brigade as part of the 3rd Division AIF. In late July or around the start of August, the 3rd Division gathered at Larkhill Salisbury Plain, located North of the City of Salisbury, England. There they trained until late November, during this time, Herbert was in a Military hospital with rhinitis (aka stuffy nose, which can come from seasonal allergies or the common cold) from the 26th to the 28th of October.

On the 25th of November, the 43rd Battalion left England and landed in Northern France, with Herbert spending most of his time, fighting in the trenches near Flanders. Herbert fought for around five months before being wounded in action on the 27th of April 1917. The next day he was admitted to the 9th Field Ambulance with a gunshot wound to the thigh, feet and ankle. This was the start of a long hospital stay. 

On the 1st of May, Herbert Frederick Thiele was transferred to the 13th General Hospital in Boulogne, France where further wounds were found with gunshot wounds to the legs and buttocks. He embarked for England on the 9th of May where he arrived in Whitstable and was admitted to the Whitstable-Tankerton hospital where his right leg was amputated. During his hospital stay, his younger brother Ewald was killed in action on the 4th of October during the Third Battle of Ypres. Herbert stayed at Whitstable until the 6th of November 1917, when he was transferred to the 1st Australian Auxiliary hospital located in Harefield (a village Northwest of London).

On the 29th of November, Herbert was transferred to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Southhall, West London, where his left leg was amputated. He stayed there, into 1918, until he had a furlough from the 25th of April to the 9th of May 1918, lasting 14 days, then he went back again. He was later admitted to the 1st Australian Dermatological Hospital in Bulford with V.D. (any STD transmitted from skin-to-skin genital contact) on the 18th of June 1918 where he stayed 38 days. He was discharged on the 5th of July and was readmitted to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital. He had another furlough from the 27th of July to the 10th of August, lasting 14 days, and then was readmitted on the 10th. On the 20th of August, he had his third and final furlough lasting fourteen days, ending on the 3rd of September 1918. He left England and ‘returned to Australia per D22 amp both legs’ on the 15th of September, being technically discharged, on an unknown type of vessel called ‘Arawa’, arriving back on the 18th of November 1918, seven days after the armistice. He was officially discharged by the Australian Military forces 4th Military District on the 26th of June 1919, due to being ‘medically unfit [not due to misconduct]’.

In 1923, he got married to Annie Elizabeth Thiele (nee Turner). They had one confirmed child together, a daughter, Noel Thiele, born in Daly County (A cadastral county comprising the North-Eastern part of the Yorke Peninsula) in 1926, with the month and date unknown.  On the 30th of November 1939, Herbert went to the Gepps Cross court for a fine totaling £6 because he caused three breaches of traffic. He was fined £2 ‘for having used an uninsured trailer’, £2 ‘for having failed to register the trailer’ and ‘for not having had a drawbar and safety chains attached to the trailer’. Constable Fry, who prosecuted, said that Thiele drove a motor car attached to the trailer. The only reason Herbert didn’t get in trouble for driving with artificial legs is that he ‘said in court that he had special permission to drive a motor vehicle’.

The marriage between Herbert Frederick Thiele and Annie Elisabeth Turner lasted until Thursday, the 30th of March 1944, when they were divorced in court ‘on the ground of adultery with a man unknown’. The news article stated that Herbert was of Yorketown and Annie was of Albert Street, Thebarton. He remarried on an unknown date to Alice Thiele whom he was married to for the rest of his life. Herbert had another daughter, Shirley Thiele but little information is known about her.

Herbert Frederick Thiele died at age 79 on the 4th of November 1970. It is unknown where he died but he was buried at Pink Lakes Cemetery, located at the address of 561 Pink Lake Rd, Yorketown SA 5576.