Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stanley Jack HAFFENDEN was born on 4th March, 1899 in London, England

His parents were William Henry HAFFENDEN and Phoebe Alice TURNER who married in Camberwell, England in 1893

Stanley arrived in Brisbane with his mother Phoebe and some of his siblings in December, 1912 on the ship Marathon - his father William & brothers William & Frank had already come to Queensland & arrived on the ship Otranto on 27th November, 1911

Four of his brothers served as follows

1. Wilfred John HAFFENDEN (SN 383) who died in 1916 of Illness in WW1

2. Frank HAFFENDEN (SN128) who died of wounds in WW1 in 1915

3. William Henry HAFFENDEN (SN QX302) returned to Australia in 1915

4. Leslie HAFFENDEN (SNQX31366) served in WW2 & discharged 1944

Stanley was the youngest of the four Haffenden brothers and the last to enlist. He presented himself to the recruiting depot in Adelaide Street on 10th January 1918. Stanley stated that he was 19 years old, single, an engineer. By January 1918, the family had moved from Logan Road, Mount Gravatt to Broadway Street between the Norman Hotel and Balaclava Street, Woolloongabba. This change of address may be the reason for Stanley’s omission from the Mount Gravatt Roll of Honour.

Stanley had been rejected previously for military service on the grounds of defective eyesight. The fact that he was accepted is indicative of the inability to keep the five divisions in France up to strength; particularly after the defeat of the second referendum on conscription in 1917. Australian casualties from the battles around Ypres and Passchendaele in 1917 had made the situation desperate.

Stanley was drafted into the 1st General Service Reinforcements Queensland. The decision on his eventual posting to a unit would be made in England. He travelled by train to Sydney and embarked on the “Osterley” on 8th May 1918.

During the sea voyage Stanley reported to the hospital with flat feet (perhaps a family trait, see William above) and tonsillitis. The reinforcements arrived in Liverpool on 10th July 1918.

Stanley was posted to the 9th Training Battalion and embarked for France from Folkstone on 24th October 1918, joining the 41st Battalion on 29th October. By this time, the great decisive battles of Villers Bretonneux, Hamel, Amiens and Mont St. Quentin had been fought. The Australian Corps was spent, and the war would come to an end 12 days later.

Being a late reinforcement, Stanley would have to wait for men with longer overseas service, some of them Gallipoli veterans to be returned to Australia before he could depart. He spent his time in the Australian depot at Sutton Veney in Wiltshire; and perhaps was granted leave to visit family in Windsor where he was born.

Stanley finally left England on 23rd July 1919, arriving in Melbourne on 10th September. He was finally discharged in Brisbane on 5th October 1919. The final entry in Stanley’s file is an application for repatriation benefits in 1936.