Henry FUNKENSTEIN

FUNKENSTEIN, Henry

Service Number: 846
Enlisted: 27 August 1914, Enlisted at Randwick, NSW
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd Infantry Battalion
Born: Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, April 1886
Home Town: Newcastle, Hunter Region, New South Wales
Schooling: Public School, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation: Labourer for Newcastle Tramways
Died: Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Turkey, 2 May 1915
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Lone Pine Memorial Panel 17,
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Hamilton Newcastle District Tramways Roll of Honor, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Lone Pine Memorial to the Missing, New Lambton Literary Institute Roll of Honour, Sydney The Great Synagogue Roll of Honour
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World War 1 Service

27 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 846, 2nd (SA) Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC), Enlisted at Randwick, NSW
18 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 846, 2nd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Suffolk embarkation_ship_number: A23 public_note: ''
25 Apr 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 846, 2nd Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, Killed in action

Help us honour Henry Funkenstein's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Carol Foster

Son of Harry and Mary Jane Funkenstein of 108 Francis Street, Leichhardt, NSW formerly of Victoria Street, Newcastle, NSW. Next of kin given as his brother Joseph Funkenstein of Leichhardt, NSW

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Also served in the cadets

Biography contributed by John Oakes

Henry FUNKENSTEIN (Service Number 846) was a temporary labourer in the maintenance branch of the Tramways at Newcastle in December 1914. 

Henry Funkenstein was born in Glebe Point in April 1886.  His German sounding name alerted authorities and his attestation papers are marked diagonally in red ink ‘Father’s status to be determined’.  It is clear from papers included in the soldier’s file that his parents were immigrants. However, his use of terms such as ‘kick the bucket’ in a letter to his mother, which is reproduced below, makes it obvious that Henry was a local.

He enlisted on 28 August 1914 at Randwick. He left Australia from Sydney on 18th October 1914 on HMAT ‘Suffolk’. He undertook further training in Egypt. He was taken on the strength of the 2nd Battalion before leaving Alexandria on the transport ‘Derfflinger’ for Gallipoli. His letter below suggests the ship waited in an unidentified harbour pending the landing.

By 2nd May 1915 he had been noted as missing.  It would be nearly a year, March 1916, before a Court of Enquiry would formally rule that he was dead. As he has no known grave, he is commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial at one of the high points above the landing site.

In delivering Funkenstein’s few personal effects and awarding the several medals and memorials much correspondence between the military, the family and others ensued.  His father died in April 1921. 

The letter below sets out the thoughts of a soldier as he waited to land at Anzac Cove.

April 12/4/1915

Dear Mar,

I received your ever welcome letters a fortnight ago but I was sadly disappointed in not getting a letter from you this time. I got seven letters this time and I can tell you that I did not feel pleased when I did not see any from you. I got four from Lightfoots and two from dear Nell Ferguson and one from D. Stoddart and I tell you that I felt downhearted when I got none from you but I suppose it is not your fault. Well dear Mar we have left Egypt now we left there on Easter Saturday and now we are in some harbour I do not know the name of it but it is in some part of Greece and now we are waiting for more troops to come and when they are all here we will be off to a place called the Dardenelles we will be landing on the beach under fire so I suppose by the time you get this note we will be knocking the Turks about so dear Mar I will always be thinking about you all well dear Mar it may be a long time before you get a letter from me again they won’t let us write any letters now you know it will only be a sort of post card just to say your well or wounded or dead and that is all. I am giving this letter to a chum of mine to post for me he is getting sent back to Cairo he is sick so I am trusting to him but you can write your letters just the same we won’t get them straight away we will get them when we go back to the base for a spell after we are in the trenches for a certain time they take us back to the base for a spell and then we will get them if we are not dead well dear Mar how is my dear Edna and Irene and Olive and your dear self and the boss. Remember me to Dear Nell tell her I did enjoy reading her letters they were lovely well dear Mar I will have to close now as I have to hurry up so as to give this letter to the chap who is going back. I will close with love to all. I remain yours ever loving H. F. we may be right in the thick of it and I will always be thinking of my Dear Edna and all of you I have made all arrangements if I kick the bucket but never mind I will knock a few before I go myself. Well dear Mar God bless you all look after dear Edna for me she is the one I love better than ever. I would anybody else in the wide world and your dear self well dear Mar I can’t say any more remember me to everybody

l remain

Yours till Death H. F.

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

 

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