Herbert Edward WELLS

Herbert Edward WELLS Update Details

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WELLS, Herbert Edward

Service Numbers:	Not yet discovered
Enlisted:	14 February 1916
Last Rank:	Lieutenant
Last Unit:	63rd Infantry Battalion
Born:	Durham Lead, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, 9 October 1872
Home Town:	Collie, Collie, Western Australia
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Auctioneer and Agent
Died:	South Perth, Western Australia, 9 November 1960, aged 88 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia
Memorials:

World War 1 Service

14 Feb 1916:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Lieutenant, 44th Infantry Battalion
6 Jun 1916:	Involvement 44th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Suevic embarkation_ship_number: A29 public_note: ''
6 Jun 1916:	Embarked 44th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Suevic, Fremantle

World War 2 Service

11 Jan 1918:	Embarked AIF WW1, 63rd Infantry Battalion, embarked England for Fremantle on board HT Port Darwin

World War 1 Service

13 Mar 1918:	Discharged AIF WW1, 63rd Infantry Battalion

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Quartermaster and Hon Captain Herbert Edward Wells was a 2nd Lieutenant with 8th Infantry 3rd Military District (13 September 1914) when he enlisted in the AIF on 14 February 1916, and was a Lieutenant attached to 44th Infantry Battalion when he embarked with his Unit from Fremantle for Plymouth on 6 June 1916 on board HMAT A29 Suevic. On 8 January 1917 Lieutenant Wells was seconded to HQ Group London as Quartermaster, and on 2 June 1917 was transferred to 63rd Battalion as Quartermaser and Hon Captain. Embarking from England on 11 January 1918 for Fremantle on board HT Port Darwin, Quartermaster/Hon Captain Wells' Appointment was Terminated on 13 March 1918. Both surviving sons (Leslie and Norman) served in WWII.

Herbert was born at Durham Lead in Ballarat, Victoria in 1872, second of nine children of James Wells (b1843 in Calais, France) and Mary Murray (b1849 in Renfrewshire, Scotland). Mary immigrated in 1852, arriving with her parents and siblings in Geelong, Victoria on board the Flora, and James immigrated with his parents and siblings in 1848, arriving in Adelaide, South Australia on board the Harpley. James walked with his parents and siblings from Adelaide to Ballarat, where as an eleven year old in 1854, he witnessed the events of the Eureka Stockade - climbing a tree for a better view (Mignon Preston; 1999). James and Mary married in 1869 at Durham Lead in Ballarat, and lived there and at Cambrian Hill via Ballarat, Barry's Reef in the Wombat State Forest, and Ascot Vale in Melbourne before moving to Western Australia in the early 1900s. James worked as a Miner and Labourer.

Herbert moved to the Western Australian Goldfields in 1895, working in Fremantle, the Murchison and Coolgardie as a Miner, and in Leonora as a Bootmaker. In 1900 in Coolgardie, Herbert married Philippa Mary Catherine Bayley (b1879 at Cross Roads via Daley, South Australia). Herbert and Phillipa settled in Collie, where they raised their family and Herbert was a Bootmaker and Salesman, and then Auctioneer and Agent. Herbert was involved in his local community - as Member and Chair of the Collie Road Board, as Justice of the Peace/Commissioner for Peace, Member of the Collie Municipal Council and Mayor of Collie (1908/1909 and 1911/1913), and on several occasions stood for election to Parliament - in 1914 he stood for the Collie Liberal Party in the state elections, and lost. Following the Termination of his Appointment with the AIF in 1918, Herbert and Mary moved to Perth, where he established himself as an Auctioneer and served as President of the Victoria Park Sub Branch RSL (1926/1929) and as a member of the State Executive. Herbert served as the Member for Canning (1930/1933) and was a Member of the Joint House Committe (1932/1933). Herbert died in 1960 and Phillipa in 1973.

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