LUNN, George
| Service Number: | 2444 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 25 February 1916, Drysdale, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 57th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Romsey, Victoria, Australia, January 1885 |
| Home Town: | Drysdale, Greater Geelong, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Romsey State School, Victoria, Australia |
| Occupation: | Baker |
| Died: | Drysdale, Victoria, Australia, 13 July 1940, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Drysdale (Bellarine) Cemetery, Victoria |
| Memorials: | Drysdale St James' Anglican Church Roll of Honor, Romsey Soldiers Honor Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 25 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2444, 57th Infantry Battalion, Drysdale, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 2444, 57th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '20' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Sep 1916: | Embarked Private, 2444, 57th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Melbourne | |
| 2 Apr 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 2444, 57th Infantry Battalion, German Withdrawal to Hindenburg Line and Outpost Villages, Multiple GSW and SW to chest, buttocks, legs and hands sustained at Morchies, France. Evacuated to UK and never rejoined unit. | |
| 28 Mar 1918: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 2444, 57th Infantry Battalion, RTA 16 December 1917 and discharged as MU (lungs). |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Robert Wight
George Lunn, a 31 year old, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 25th February 1916. He was with the 57th Battalion, A.I.F. and wrote from Hurdcott Camp, Salisbury on December 12th 1916:
“We are now fully equipped and ready to go to France and may be leaving for there any time. I am taking the opportunity of writing, as we may not have the facilities for writing like we have here… The weather these last three weeks has been something awful – either rain, frost, or snow every day. I have not altogether given up hope of seeing the sun again, but I have not seen it for some time… We have to drill very hard here, Saturday and Sunday just the same; no knocking off at 12 noon Saturday till Monday morning; but our chaps don’t growl half as much as one would expect, and all are now talking and wondering what things are like in France, and I think fully 90 per cent, are anxious to make Fritz’s acquaintance and get it over, as they say. We have been through all the latest bayonet drill, and yesterday were put on to throwing hand grenades, the real ‘dinkum’ article! It makes a man a bit nervous at first when he knows that the slightest mistake on his part will put him and perhaps some of his ‘cobbers’ ‘pushing up the daisies’; but you soon get over that, and grenade throwing will do me all right.”
Private George Lunn was wounded in action in France on 2nd April, 1917. He was admitted to 11th Stationary Hospital at Rouen, France with gunshot wounds to chest & buttocks on 12th April, 1917. Private Lunn was reported as dangerously ill on 16th April, 1917. He was invalided to England on 10th July 1917 & admitted to Canadian Red Cross Hospital at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, on 11th July 1917. He wrote:
“Well, Old Fritz got me alright, and gave me a good dose of lead, too…I got two bullets through the right chest, one came out just under the shoulder blade, but the other struck my little Testament in my tunic pocket and glanced off and settled in the right lung. I got another bullet through the left thumb (top joint), another in the left shin, just below the knee, one in the back, about an inch to the left of the spine, and a little above the level of the hips, and four more around the small of the back, a total of nine bullets altogether (machine gun, by the way.) Five of the bullets came out, and the other four have been taken out. I got hit in the chest first, and started to crawl in, and I wasn’t a yard off shelter when I got the five in the back. I don’t know when I got hit in the shin or thumb. I just laid down in a shell hole that was alongside, when a bomb exploded, and I got seven more small wounds from that, one on left eyebrow, two on right forearm, two on the right, and two on the left leg, making a grand total of 21 wounds altogether. I was bandaged from head to foot.”
Private Lunn was returned to Australia from London on 16th December 1917 due to shortness of breath and inability to walk. He disembarked in Australia on 13th February 1918. He was medically discharged from the Australian Imperial Force on 28th March 1918 and died on 13th July 1940, aged 55 years.
Source: The Map of Australia: A First World War Chalk Badge at Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire