James Henry (Jim) URQUHART

James Henry (Jim) URQUHART Update Details

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URQUHART, James Henry

Service Number:	2678
Enlisted:	Not yet discovered
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	9th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia, 29 February 1892
Home Town:	Charters Towers, Charters Towers, Queensland
Schooling:	Charters Towers State School, Queensland, Australia
Occupation:	Labourer
Died:	Killed in Action, France, 13 August 1916, aged 24 years
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial
Memorials:

World War 1 Service

16 Aug 1915:	Involvement Private, 2678, 9th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Kyarra embarkation_ship_number: A55 public_note: ''
16 Aug 1915:	Embarked Private, 2678, 9th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Kyarra, Brisbane

Postcards and gift to sweetheart

I am Violet Maud Wilkinson's granddaughter.
Amongst my mother's treasured belongings in 2018, I found a beautiful embroidered cushion cover sent to my grandmother by a soldier from Egypt during WWI. The embroidered greeting on it:
"A Soldiers Farewell To Violet with Love From Jim".
This puzzled my family because Violet married another WWI soldier, William Robert Ninnes, my grandfather. Fortunately I also found 8 postcards from "Jim" to my grandmother and on the latest of those, obviously sadly replying to a postcard from my grandmother saying she was marrying William, "Jim" signed his full name as James Henry Urquhart. We can only conclude that he was my grandmother's childhood sweetheart from Charters Towers (where she was born and spent her early life) and that this gift and postcards were kept as a treasured reminder of a first love. They are now housed at State Library of Queensland (see photos).
Sadly Jim has no known grave so these at least help preserve his memory.

Biography contributed by Carol Foster

Son of Henry and Isabella Urquhart, of Sandy Creek, Charters Towers, QLD.

1 June 1915 - enlisted at Ingham, QLD, with the 9th Battalion and with the rank of Private.

25 February 1916 - transferred to the 49th Battalion

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Virtual
War Memorial
Australia