Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Robert Sefton Henderson was born in Ulmarra, a small town in Clarence River Council in New South Wales.He lived there for an unknown amount of time, before moving with his family to Sydney, living at “Clytheroe”. Carrington Avenue, Strathfield with his mother, and his father, Robert Henderson. Somewhere between 1911 to 1913, Henderson attended the Sydney Technical High School. When he finished his schooling, he worked together with his father at a family business as a tobacconist from late 1913.

Henderson enlisted in the A.I.F on the 16th of May 1915 at the Liverpool A.I.F camp, where he completed his basic training. Henderson was ranked private in the 8th Field Ambulance, a second line casualty evacuation unit, tasked with evacuating wounded soldiers from first line posts to safer locations for treatment. 6 months later, he embarked for war from Melbourne. He arrived on the Suez Canal in Egypt on the 15th of February 1916 after a 3 month journey, and was stationed at the Serapeum military camp for a month, before being moved to the Tel-El-Kebir camp between Cairo and the Suez canal, he was transferred to the 13th Field Ambulance, another second line casualty evacuation unit, which Henderson would remain in for the rest of his service in the A.I.F.

He contracted influenza a few days later, being hospitalised and treated within his own unit. This was the first of many bouts of sickness that Henderson faced. After a few days, Henderson had recovered, and was sent back to Serapeum. In June 1916, Henderson travelled to Alexandria and embarked for service on the Western Front, he arrived at France 2 weeks later, disembarking at Marseilles. Shortly after, he suffered a short bout of influenza again. In October 1916, Henderson received his first promotion, being promoted from Private to Driver. In April 1917, he fell ill again, this time with Mumps. 

Henderson’s service in Marseilles was uneventful for the remainder of the year. In January 1918, he joined his unit on a detachment to England, serving there for the rest of the war. 6 months later, he developed defective vision, after which he took leave for a month. Henderson was promoted to Lance Corporal in September 1918.

After the war ended Henderson took leave to Paris for 2 weeks, he was promoted to Temporary Corporal 3 days before his return. A month later, he was promoted to Temporary Sergeant. In April 1919, he marched out to return to Australia, reverting to the rank of Lance Corporal. Henderson boarded HMAS Nestor on the 16th of April 1919, and left for Australia. 

He was sick at sea for the last week of the journey. Robert Sefton Henderson disembarked HMAS Nestor at Sydney on the 4th of July 1919.

Robert Sefton Henderson died of unknown causes on the 3rd of June 1943, at the age of 48.

References:

- First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers and National Archive of Australia (2002) ‘HENDERSON R S’. 
- AIF Project  ‘Robert Sefton HENDERSON’. 
‘Sydney Technical High School World War One Roll of Honour’ 
- Virtual War Memorial | 8th Field Ambulance, Virtual War Memorial. 
- Virtual War Memorial | 13th Field Ambulance, Virtual War Memorial.