Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harry Brightwell was born in Fernvale to parents George and Eugenie Brightwell. The family moved to a farm near Chowey Siding on the rail line between Biggenden and Gayndah by the time of Harry’s enlistment.

When Harry Brightwell presented himself to the recruitment depot at Adelaide Street in Brisbane on 18th March 1916, he was 25 years old and single. He advised the recruiter that he was employed as a carpenter at Mount Shamrock near the family farm. Harry was a young man in the peak of physical condition, standing almost six feet tall with a 37” chest. It would appear that he was granted a few days to settle his affairs as he travelled back to Mt Shamrock to have his will witnessed by Harry and Daisy Johns. No doubt Harry also spent some time with his family before reporting to Enoggera Camp on 6th April.

Harry was initially placed in a depot battalion before being allocated as part of the 21st reinforcements of the 9th Battalion. While still in camp, he was promoted to the rank of temporary sergeant. The photograph of Harry in the Australian War Memorial collection shows him wearing sergeant stripes and was probably taken at a studio in Brisbane prior to his departure for overseas.

Harry and the other 100 or so reinforcements boarded the “Boonah” in Brisbane on 21st October 1916. Harry reported to the onboard hospital the next day with a case of venereal disease, with which he would spend 18 days in the ward and a subsequent loss of pay. The “Boonah” docked in Plymouth on 10th January 1917 having sailed from Australian ports to England via South Africa to avoid German U-Boat activity between the Suez Canal and Gibraltar. The reinforcements marched out to the 3rd Australian Training Battalion at Sutton Veney where Harry reverted to the rank of private. After almost three months in England, Harry was posted overseas via Southampton and Havre to join the 9th Battalion on 1st May 1917.

During the spring of 1917 on the Western Front, the German forces opposing the British and Australian forces began a strategic withdrawal eastward toward prepared defences which the British called the Hindenburg Line. When Harry joined his battalion in early May, the 1st Division of the AIF was preparing to attack the Hindenburg defences near the village of Bullecourt.

Harry’s records show that he sustained a shrapnel wound to his face while in the trenches at Morchies near Bullecourt on 7th May; having been with the battalion for just six days. He was taken to a Casualty Clearing Station before being transported to the 2nd Canadian General Hospital at Rouen where he spent almost seven weeks. After a period of convalescence, Harry returned to battalion on 20th July.

Bullecourt was the final battle the Australians were engaged in on the Somme in 1917. A great offensive was planned for the summer in Belgian Flanders on the Ypres Salient and all the Australian divisions were moved to the area on the French Belgian border north of Armentieres. The 9th Battalion was engaged in a period of training in the rear areas when Harry arrived from hospital. The great offensive began on 7th June with the blowing of 19 underground mines beneath a ridge which extended from near Ypres to the village of Messines.

The 9th Battalion, as part of the 1st Division, was given a supporting and consolidation role in the area around Ploegsteert for the next few months. On 20th September, Harry was again wounded by a shrapnel blast to his head. He travelled the familiar route via Casualty Clearing Station to the 83rd General Hospital at Boulogne. Two months later Harry was back with his unit in the rest areas near Armentieres. He had experienced his second close call.

On 16th December, Harry was back in hospital in Boulogne; this time with a case of syphilis. He spent a total of 46 days in the VD Ward before being marched back to his battalion.

The British Commander on the Western Front, General Douglas Haig, was anticipating a large German offensive in the spring of 1918. Haig incorrectly guessed that the main thrust of the offensive would be in Flanders and he kept his best troops, the Australian divisions in Flanders to be ready to meet an attack.

Harry enjoyed a period of leave in England in late March 1918 and by the time that he returned to France, the German Spring Offensive had begun; but not in Flanders. The German blitzkrieg was aimed back along the old battlefields of the Somme in France. Haig began to shift most of the AIF divisions to the Somme to defend Amiens but he left the 1st Division AIF in place in Flanders to meet any threat that might arise there.

On 25th April 1918, a date of major significance, the 9th Battalion were holding the line at Meteren. Harry Brightwell was manning one of a number of forward posts. There are several reports from witnesses as to what happened and some of those reports vary in the telling as these men were interviewed many months later. All agreed that a shot from the enemy trenches was aimed at the forward post and that the bullet passed very close to Harry’s head. Whether it was from a sniper, a burst of machine gun fire or a ricochet, the outcome was the same. At such a close distance, Harry would have heard a loud crack as the bullet passed through the sound barrier near his head. Having suffered two previous head wounds, and no doubt the attendant trauma, it would appear that this third time was too much. Several witnesses reported that Harry fell and he was dead when he hit the ground, a victim of shock or possibly heart failure. All remarked that there was not a mark on his body.

Harry was buried in the Meteren Military Cemetery south of Ypres. His parents chose an inscription for his headstone “He answered the call; a son Father and Mother were proud of.” Eugenie Brightwell was granted a pension of 30 shillings a fortnight.

Both Harry’s mother and his sister, who was a school teacher at Wolfram on the Atherton Tableland, wrote to the authorities enquiring about Harry’s personal effects.    

In due course, some personal items which included a whistle, a rosary and a fountain pen were packaged to be despatched back to Australia. The package was one small part of the cargo of the S.S. Barunga, a German registered freighter which had been requestioned by the Australian Government in Sydney at the outbreak of the war. The Barunga sailed from Plymouth with a number of soldiers returning to Australia as passengers, and the personal effects of many deceased servicemen on board. Four days out of port, the Barunga was torpedoed by a U-Boat off the Scilly Isles. All passengers and crew were rescued but all the cargo was lost.