Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From the Bruny Island History Room

Submitted by Greg Styles in celebration of Remembrance Day. Cpl Oscar Harold Hansson from Adventure Bay who went off to fight in WW1.

He joined the 40th Battalion and left on the Berrima from Hobart. He fought in Armentiers and Ypres. He was on burial parties and escorted court martialled soldiers to prison and eventually became a corporal. I was also told he was a sniper and shot a german general at a mile range which sounds extreme particularly with normal open sights but it is what I was told. Several other young men from Bruny went to the same Battalion including I believe Mr Ray Corney from Lunawanna who also made it back ,he might be one of the other people in the army photos.

I also met him (Mr Corney) at his farm in the 1980's . My Grandad was wounded in the thigh later in the war and ended up marrying an English nurse who treated him. They divorced in the 1930s. Oscar also worked at the Electrona Carbide works around 1940 where he met Caroline Hayers who he married and they moved to Adventure Bay. He lived at Bellevue at Adventure Bay and was an orchardist for many years.

There is a family story that he had his SMLE . 303 rifle which he was allowed to keep after the war (if this is true it may be because he was a farmer but generally they were supposed to give everything back on demobilisation..? ). I was told that he eventually threw it down the old Coal mine shaft near the cemetary at Adventure Bay because it reminded him of the war and all the killing.

He used to have bad nightmares about the war so this could well be true. The rifle would have rusted away so I'm not worried about anyone abseiling down there to retrieve it.

Oscar also had a WW1 german water flask, one can only imagine how he came to have it, I wonder if it was a souvenir or from a battle or just picked up? One of my Aunties told me that he had been in a shell crater with a German and it was either him or the German and the German didn't make it so i have always wondered if it was his water bottle.... but I am guessing really. I found the water bottle in a shed when we were cleaning up after my Grandmother passed away. I had never ever seen it before and the war was never spoken about so it was a real surprise. 

Interestingly I recall seeing the Bruny rifle club had a competition at one point and Oscar was shooting against his father Lars Hansson and his father won ! !