GEDDES, Jack
| Service Number: | 3782 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 8 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 13th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, 8 May 1894 |
| Home Town: | Parkes, Parkes, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Parkes Superior Public School, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | Shop Assistant |
| Died: | Tuberculosis, contracted while in a German POW camp during WW1, Woollahra, New South Wales, Australia , 14 June 1921, aged 27 years |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Parkes District Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 8 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3782, 13th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Dec 1915: | Involvement Private, 3782, 13th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Suevic embarkation_ship_number: A29 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Dec 1915: | Embarked Private, 3782, 13th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Suevic, Sydney | |
| 15 Aug 1916: | Imprisoned Battle for Pozières , Repatriated to England via Holland | |
| 15 Aug 1916: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 3782, 13th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières | |
| 31 Mar 1921: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 3782, 13th Infantry Battalion, Being treated in Australia for tuberculosis. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Jack Geddes was a shop assistant, raised at Parkes NSW. He was TOS of 13th battalion at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt during March 1916, and went missing in action 14 August 1916, reported a POW of the Germans on 6 November 1916, captured at Mouquet Farm Pozieres with a bullet wound to back, interned at Munster Germany. He was repatriated on 18 August 1918 to England, and was sent to hospital there with TB of lung and returned to Australia 20 November 1918. He was still on the strength of AIF after being treated in Australia, until discharged medically unfit on 31 March 1921. He died of tuberculosis less than 3 months later on 14 June 1921.
His name does not appear on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial as the cut off date for eligibilty was 31 March 1921, the day he was discharged from the AIF.
His brother 2485 Lance Corporal Robert Roy Geddes 17th Battalion AIF, was killed in action 15 May 1918, age 22.
Mother wrote to AIF Base Records, page 25 of his National Archives service file.
Mother to Base Records NAA Jack Geddes page 25.
She was writing to thank the Base Records Office for the memorial scroll she received for her son Robert Roy Geddes, ….”I might state that I have lost my only two sons who both answered the call and now know by records my younger son was shot through the head by a sniper whilst on observation duty and my oldest son Jack who was taken a prisoner and had been repatriated to England in a dying condition and after treatment in England was returned to Australia. He, having been inoculated with tuberculosis and the brutal treatment meted out to him by the German prison officials from which he never recovered and he died in his mother’s arms on the 14 June last. Do you not think he should have a memorial scroll as God only knows how hard it is two lose my only two boys?
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