David Edwin HARTLEY

HARTLEY, David Edwin

Service Number: 1335
Enlisted: 29 August 1914, Enlisted at Kensington in Sydney.
Last Rank: Corporal
Last Unit: 3rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Moorwatha, New South Wales, Australia, August 1885
Home Town: Not yet discovered
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Farmer, Railway Permanent Way Labourer
Died: Killed in Action, Belgium, 4 October 1917
Cemetery: Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Howlong Roll of Honor, Howlong War Memorial
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World War 1 Service

29 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1335, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Kensington in Sydney.
20 Oct 1914: Involvement Private, 1335, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''
20 Oct 1914: Embarked Private, 1335, 3rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney
5 Apr 1915: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1335, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Embarked from Alexandria for the first landings at Gallipoli.
4 Oct 1917: Involvement Corporal, 1335, 3rd Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 1335 awm_unit: 3 Battalion awm_rank: Corporal awm_died_date: 1917-10-04

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Biography contributed by John Oakes

David HARTLEY, (Service Number 1335)was a temporary general labourer in the Permanent Way Branch between Culcairn and Corowa'.

David Edwin Hartley was born about August 1885 at Moorwatha, in southern NSW.  Upon enlistment at Kensington on 29 August 1914 Hartley gave his next of kin as his mother living at Howlong in southern NSW, close to the location of his railway employment. He gave his occupation as ‘Farmer’, but he also worked the Railways.

He left Australia from Sydney aboard HMAT ‘Euripides’ on 20th October 1914. He was allotted to the 3rd Australian Infantry Battalion. From Egypt, he embarked through Alexandria on ‘Derfflinger’ on 5th April 1915 and was thus part of the first landings at Anzac Cove. He was hospitalised on Gallipoli with dysentery and the evacuated to a ship standing off shore, which took him to Malta. He went to St Andrews Hospital on Malta, and then to a convalescent camp at Ghain Tufficha on that island. He did not return to Gallipoli but embarked for England in early November. He was admitted to 2nd Eastern General Hospital at Brighton.

He spent most of 1916 in hospital and on light duties with a brief furlough. In December he contracted mumps and in January 1917 was diagnosed with venereal disease, the treatment of which required 49 days.

It was May 1917 before he was deemed fit for being taken on the strength of a front-line unit. He re-joined the 3rd Battalion in France. In June he was disciplined for having lights on in his billet after 10 pm and received what seems like the severe punishment of three days Field Punishment No. 2. This entailed being shackled for several hours in public view as an object of ridicule.

Despite his misbehaviour he was appointed Lance Corporal a fortnight later and sent to the Anzac Corps Musketry School. Hereturnned to the Battalion on 30th June. He became Temporary Corporal in August and was sent to the 1st Brigade Musketry class. He returned on 4th September.

He was killed in Action in Belgium on 4th October 1917. In the rationalisation of cemeteries after the war he was re-interred at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Passchendaele, Flanders.

- based on notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.

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