SEABROOK, George
| Service Number: | 58150 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 28 June 1918 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st to 8th (QLD) Reinforcements |
| Born: | Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, 12 December 1897 |
| Home Town: | Takura, Fraser Coast, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Didcot and Degilbo Schools, Queensland, Australia |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Influenza, Sierra Leone, West Africa, 25 October 1918, aged 20 years |
| Cemetery: |
Freetown (King Tom) Cemetery, Sierra Leone, West Africa Row 2, Grave No. 191, |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Biggenden Honour Roll, Biggenden Residents of Degilbo Shire War Memorial, Coalstoun Lakes & District Honour Roll, Pialba War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 28 Jun 1918: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 58150, 1st to 8th (QLD) Reinforcements | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Sep 1918: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 58150, 1st to 8th (QLD) Reinforcements, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '20' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Bakara embarkation_ship_number: A41 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Oct 1918: | Involvement Private, 58150, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 58150 awm_unit: Australian Reinforcement awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1918-10-25 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Ian Lang
# 58150 SEABROOK George 6th General Service Reinforcements
George Seabrook was born on 12th December 1897; the youngest of three brothers born to George and Dora Seabrook of Didcot on the Gayndah Line. George attended school at both Didcot and Degilbo before probably working on the family farm.
George presented himself for enlistment to the Maryborough Enlistment Office on 28th June 1918. His elder brothers, Percy and Walter, had enlisted in 1916 and were already serving overseas. George stated his age as 20 years and 7 months and gave his address as Takura on the rail line between Maryborough and Pialba. George had completed an application to join the AIF which also contained his parent’s signatures as he was under age. In spite of the fact that George and Dora had signed the application, the enlistment officer in Maryborough wrote to Dora at Takura asking if she objected to her son enlisting.
George travelled to Brisbane where he marched in to the Rifle Range Camp at Enoggera. After only a month of training, George was granted 8 days home leave as he wished to visit friends and relatives at Didcot. On 4th September 1918, George as part of the 6th General Services Reinforcements embarked on the ”Bakara” in Sydney. Troop transports at that stage of the war were compelled to sail via Capetown and Sierra Leone in order to avoid German U-Boats in the Mediterranean and the entrance to the English Channel. The voyage could take up to two months.
On 19th October, while at sea between Capetown and Freetown, Sierra Leone, George was admitted to the ship’s hospital with a case of pneumonia. When the “Bakara” arrived in Freetown on 25th October, George was unloaded from the ship and admitted to a military hospital where he died from heart failure that same day.
George was buried in the Naval and Military Cemetery, King Tom, Sierra Leone. He was laid to rest near Private William Slogrove, a farmer from Billinudgel in NSW, who had been in the same echelon as George on board the “Bakara”, and who had also died on 25th October.
George and Dora Seabrook at Takura signed for their son’s Memorial Scroll and Plaque, and the British War Medal.