CHESTERFIELD, Herbert Thomas
| Service Number: | 2115 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 11 February 1915, Seymour, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 7th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Mount Gambier, South Australia, Australia, 1 July 1895 |
| Home Town: | Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Farrier's Floorman |
| Memorials: | Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 11 Feb 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2115, 7th Infantry Battalion, Seymour, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Jun 1915: | Involvement Private, 2115, 7th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wandilla embarkation_ship_number: A62 public_note: '' | |
| 17 Jun 1915: | Embarked Private, 2115, 7th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wandilla, Melbourne |
Help us honour Herbert Thomas Chesterfield's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
2115 Herbert Thomas CHESTERFIELD was born at Mt Gambier on 1 July 1895. He was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 20 January 1908 by his father, Thomas Chesterfield, railway worker, of Glencoe. He left school on 7 April 1909.
He enlisted at Horsham, Victoria, in February 1915 (19, farrier’s floorman, single, Presbyterian) naming his father, Thomas Chesterfield of Mount Gambier, as his next of kin, and embarked from Melbourne on the ‘Wandilla’ in June 1915.
He joined the 7th Battalion on Gallipoli on 5 August 1915, was in action at Lone Pine days later, but was evacuated suffering from bronchitis in October 1915. He underwent further training in Egypt before embarking from Alexandria in Egypt on the ‘Ivernia’ on 21 June 1916, disembarking at Marseilles in France on 30 June 1916. He fought at Pozieres before being transferred to the 59th Battalion in December 1916. He was involved in the Battle of Polygon Wood on 26 September 1917 was wounded by enemy shelling at Westhoek Ridge in Flanders on 12 October 1917. He re-joined the battalion on 11 December 1917, was granted leave to England from 28 February to 16 March 1916, and took part in the counterattack responsible for recapturing Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April 1918 and attacks near Peronne in early September before being wounded again on 1 October 1918 (right hand, severe) during a battalion advance near Bellicourt in northern France, evacuated to England on 4 October, and hospitalised until discharged to furlough on 28 October. He left England on the ‘Nestor’ for return to Australia in December 1918, and was discharged medically unfit in March 1919.
Published in Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War by Graeme Roulstone
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