Claude Samuel (Jack) FITZJOHN

FITZJOHN, Claude Samuel

Service Number: 2660
Enlisted: 26 April 1916, Sydney, New South Wales
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 53rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Carcoar, New South Wales, 6 July 1893
Home Town: Dulwich Hill, Marrickville, New South Wales
Schooling: Canterbury State School
Occupation: Dental operator
Died: Killed in Action, Peronne, France, 1 September 1918, aged 25 years
Cemetery: Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension
Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension, Peronne, Picardie, France
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour
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World War 1 Service

26 Apr 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2660, Sydney, New South Wales
7 Oct 1916: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2660, 53rd Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: ''
7 Oct 1916: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2660, 53rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney
26 Sep 1917: Involvement Private, 2660, 53rd Infantry Battalion, Polygon Wood
1 Sep 1918: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2660, 53rd Infantry Battalion, Mont St Quentin / Peronne

Help us honour Claude Samuel Fitzjohn's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by John Edwards

"Claude was born in 1893 at Carcoar in the Pennant Hills area of New South Wales. His parents were Samuel and Sarah Lee Fitzjohn . Samuel was a railway worker at Binalong for the GSWR. One of six children, (four sisters and a brother who died as an infant before Claude was born) he was educated at Canterbury school and afterwards trained as a dental operator. 

Enlisting in the Army at Sydney he was sent to France with 53rd battalion AIF (C company 12th platoon) where he met his end at the battle of the Somme. His sergeant reported the circumstances of his death as follows:-

On 1/9/1918 the battalion was in section at Peronne . They hopped over at 6 am. Immediately before the hop over Fitzjohn looked over the top of the trench when he was next to private L Hill and was hit by a bullet in the head." - SOURCE (www.findagrave.com)

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Biography contributed by John Edwards

The son of Samuel and Sarah. His father noted on his Roll of Honour circular, "he was an only son, and the last and only male of his generation of the family"

His mother Sarah died from pneumonia at Dripstone, NSW, on 13 Aug 1895 when Jack was still an infant and his four sisters were under 10. His father Samuel remarried two years layer to Ada in 1897.