Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Thomas Hart was a local Narromine resident. He was a son, a brother, an uncle, a husband, a father and a grandfather. This is his story.

John Thomas Hart was born in Nyngan on 27th October 1889. He was the second son and sixth child of Henry “Harry” Hart and his wife Jane, and was brother to Mary, William, Kate, Martha, Annie, Ellen and Elsie.

The family lived in Nyngan until the turn of the century, and then made the move to Third Avenue Narromine. The children attended the local school, and worked in and around the area.

In 1911, John known as “Jack” met May Neill from Mount Costigan near Tuena and they were married in St Mary’s Church Narromine. In search of work, they then relocated to Mount Costigan where Jack commenced work at the local Mount Costigan mine. The settlement was a tent city, and whilst May’s family were there for support, life was still hard. In 1912 Jack’s first child Eunice was born, and by the end of 1913, May and Jack had a son, John Francis Leo. Unfortunately, conditions had taken their toll on the relationship, and by March 1914, Jack and May had gone their separate ways with the children remaining in their mother’s care.

Jack returned to his family in Narromine. At this time, World War 1 had commenced and the Australian Army had begun recruiting able bodied young men to fight for His Majesty’s Service. Jack’s brother William enlisted and was accepted. Jack tried to enlist, but due to a turned left eye, his application was rejected.
However by 1916, the story was different. Numerous casualties had been amassed and the war was still proceeding, as was the need for more recruitments.

On 20th March 1916 Jack made his way to Dubbo and again applied to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. This time the army wasn’t as selective, and on 22nd March 1916, the day Jack’s daughter celebrated her 4th birthday, her father was enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, 19th reinforcement, of the Australian Imperial Force under the name John Henry Hart. Jack was in the army.

He swore his allegiance to the King and promised to faithfully discharge his duty according to the law until the end of the War, and a further period of four months thereafter. He also swore to resist His Majesty’s enemies and to cause His Majesty’s peace to be kept. Jack duly signed the Oath, and on 22nd August 1916 just two months short of his 27th birthday, Jack embarked from Sydney’s shores aboard the HMAT A18 “Wiltshire”. He would never see Australia or Narromine again.

The excitement of the voyage, the anticipation of going to war, the sadness of leaving behind friends and family, and the thrill of seeing so many people to bid them farewell, must have been a memorable moment, and one that a young man would hold with him forever.

Jack’s adventure soon took a different turn when just three weeks into the voyage on 17th September 1916 he became quite ill and was admitted to the Hospital wing aboard ship suffering with the Mumps. He then spent the next 21 days in Hospital and was finally discharged from hospital on 7th October 1916.
HMAT “Wiltshire” arrived at Plymouth in England one week later on 13th October 1916, and the troops, who were mostly young men from the Australian bush, just like Jack, were taken on strength to Etaples in France on 14th December 1916.

These boys from the bush were next sent to armoury school of instruction on 8th February 1917, and with a total of just three weeks training on how to be professional soldiers, they were returned to their battalion on 2nd March 1917, and moved to the front line along the Somme in France. On the way up the line, Jack was toppled out of the truck, and was discovered missing when they arrived at their destination. A fellow battalion companion, Bill Woods ( enlisted as Hercules Samuel Woods), was responsible for the men, went back to find the missing soldier, and was astonished to discover that the missing man was his old school mate from Narromine, Jack Hart, having been school mates since 1901.

On 8th April 1917, at 7.30pm, the 2nd Battalion marched out of Halpincourt and made their way to lay out in attack formation just beyond Doignies near Hermies.

Jack had a bad feeling about this night, and knew that he wasn’t going to survive it. He went to Bill Woods and asked him to take all his personal belongings as he said he would get knocked. Bill told him that it might be him and what then? Jack also told Bill that he was married and he wanted him to take his photos and papers to return to his wife.

Jack was also an officer’s batman to Lt Keith R Donaldson, and was selected by Lt Donaldson because he was a capable runner, most likeable, and a good soldier. Jack also didn’t drink which made him a reliable person for the officer to count on. Again, on the night before Hermies, Jack said to Lt Donaldson “I feel I will not come out of this stunt, and would like you to write to my wife”. With that he handed him a marginal piece of paper from a newspaper with his wife’s address on it. Ironically, both the men that Jack tried to pass his personal belongings to that night, survived the battle, and returned home to Australia.

While the troops were lying in wait for the appointed hour of 3.30am on the morning of 9th April 1917, a flare was fired from some German post just in front of the company. It fell between their lines and lay spluttering in a small heap of straw to which it quickly set fire, illuminating the Australian soldiers lying in wait. An outburst of German machine gun fire ended the life of Jack Hart and approximately 26 other brave soldiers on that fateful night.

Another battalion companion, Victor Lewis in 1967 recalled the night, and wrote “He was placed alongside many other soldiers killed in that engagement and buried in a grave with as much service as it was possible to give as we were still in sight of enemy gunfire”. “After a few days a rough head piece was erected, it was made out of two thick doors taken out of the village of Beaumets Le-Cambria and joined together with pieces of wood on the back and all the names were written on it with as much care as time would permit in those terrible times of war. Most of the men who gave care to it went the same way at sometime or other”.

Jack’s final resting place is in the Hermies Hill British War Cemetery, 8 kilometers east of Bapaume in France. Plot 1, Row A, grave 8, and the inscription on his headstone reads;

6020 Private
J H HART
2nd Bn Australian INF
9th April 1917 Age 26
‘”Dearer to us than words can tell
was a husband and father we loved so well”

In 1921, Jack’s widow and estranged wife May, was presented with the Victory Medal, the British War Medal , the Memorial Scroll and the Memorial Plaque, in honour of Jack’s service to his country. In 1967, Jack’s grandchildren were presented with the Battle of the Somme medal, from the French War Commission. This medal has survived.