Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold was born in Ballarat, Victoria on 8th March 1897. When he was a teenager his family moved to Casterton in western Victoria. Harold was a member of the Senior Cadets for four years and was in the Citizen Military Forces for six months. He was also a keen member of the Casterton Brass Band, playing the cornet. He worked as a printer in the local newspaper office.

On the 15th March 1916, a few days after his 19th birthday, Harold volunteered for active service in Hamilton, along with 12 other men from Casterton. His service record describes him as 5 feet 6 1/2 inches in height, 128 lbs in weight, complexion dark, eyes brown and hair brown.

Harold was sent to Ballarat, joining the 39th Battalion then being formed in that city. He was immediately appointed to the battalion band, given his previous band experience.

During his training and active service Harold kept a diary. The 5 small notebooks are mostly written in pencil in small writing, and are difficult to read. In 1983 Harold’s family lodged the diary with the Australian War Memorial archives, along with a typescript copy done by Harold’s daughter Zoe. (AWM ID No. PR84/254)

After 2 months training, on 27th May 1916 the 39th Battalion sailed from Port Melbourne on T.S.S. Ascanius. Harold wrote:
"I have the good luck to get a good place to say farewell to my father and brother, who have travelled to Melbourne to see me off. There is an enormous crowd on the pier. The streamers of coloured variety make a pretty sight and there are some pathetic farewells. The gong sounds at last and the big ship slowly moves away from the pier. Amid the breaking of the streamers, broken hearted mothers and sweethearts, sad fathers and sorrowful sisters say goodbye and wish good luck. I shall never forget this night. It was sad yet grand. We in due course sail through Port Phillip Heads and see Queenscliff. We soon sail out of sight of land and this is the last we see of Australia."

Harold’s diary details his daily life as a private soldier and bandsman; training at Ballarat, the voyage on the troopship and further training on Salisbury Plain in England. His battalion is first in the trenches and the reserve lines in the Armentieres sector of the Western Front, and Harold describes his day to day experiences there and then in Belgium as the battalion prepared for the Messines attack in June 1917. Of that attack, Harold wrote:
“Thursday, June 7th 1917:
At 3 a.m. the earth trembled. We well knew that our mines had been fired under the enemy's defences. Our artillery then opened out in one terrific roar. The clouds seemed to be afire with the flashes of our guns; it was pretty, yet seemed horrible to the extreme. At daybreak my mates & self make for our front line. We pass the Advanced Dressing Station & there are many slightly gassed men lying about. At last we reach our Regimental Aid Post & from there three mates & myself comprise a stretcher party to go across to where our men had advanced over captured German defences. I'll never forget my first glance at the German position. The trenches were smashed to pieces - in fact there was only enough broken woodwork etc. there for one to know there had been trenches there at all. The ground is just a mass of broken & churned up ground from our shell fire. German dead are lying everywhere & there must be numerous bodies buried in the debris. We find two of our chaps wounded near a big German concrete dugout. A wounded German is lying there also & when he sees me he calls out "kamerade, kamerade" & is talking away in German evidently imploring help & pity. We put one of our wounded comrades on a stretcher & start for our aid post ....”

Among Harold's mementoes is a photo of the seven remaining Battalion band members taken after the Messines battle. Two members had been killed and all the others were gassed or wounded.

Harold’s diary includes accounts of leave spent in London and Edinburgh, but in 1918 his entries become briefer and less regular and the diary finishes on January 1st 1919 following the November armistice.

In February 1919, while on leave in Paris, Harold became ill with Spanish Influenza, resulting in 37 days in hospitals in France and England. On 27th April 1919 Harold departed England for Australia on the HMAT Runic A54. He was discharged from the army on 1st September, 1919 “being medically unfit not due to misconduct.”

Pte. H.E.Gazzard served for 1261 days, 1110 days of which were served abroad, including active service in France and Belgium. He was a stretcher-bearer and bandsman with the 39th Battalion throughout his service.

On return, Harold resumed working for his father at the “Casterton News”. He married Annie Margaret Peden in December 1926 and they had four children.

Harold was an active member of the RSL, and a member of the Casterton VDC during World War 2.

In 1948 Harold developed a serious illness caused by his war service and consequently was in care for the rest of his life. He died on 2 October 1963 and is buried in the Casterton Cemetery.

Notes by Duncan Brookes, Harold’s grandson. January 2015