RABINOVITCH, Bezelle
| Service Number: | 1798 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 4 January 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 59th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Paddington, New South Wales, Australia, 1898 |
| Home Town: | Balaclava, Port Phillip, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Cutter Junior |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 19 July 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial, Victorian Jewish War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 4 Jan 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1798, 8th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr 1915: | Involvement Private, 1798, 8th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wiltshire embarkation_ship_number: A18 public_note: '' | |
| 14 Apr 1915: | Embarked Private, 1798, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wiltshire, Melbourne | |
| 19 Jul 1916: | Involvement Private, 1798, 59th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 1798 awm_unit: 59th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-07-19 | |
| Date unknown: | Involvement 59th Infantry Battalion, Fromelles (Fleurbaix) |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
His brother, 17708 Pte. Eliezer Hurst Rabinovitch 9th Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps, was 2 years later killed in action 31 August 1918, age 22.
Solomon Rabinovitch, a stonemason, married Caroline (daughter of Rev. Greenbaum) in 1882. They had five children in Carlton, Victoria, then moved to Sydney c. 1890 where Caroline bore another six children, including Eliezer in 1896 and Bezaleel (known as Bezelle) in 1898. The family returned to Melbourne c. 1900 where their twelfth child was born.Later AIF Chaplain, Rev. Danglow officiated at Bezelle’s barmitzvah at St Kilda HC in 1911. Bezelle was in the Junior Cadets and worked as a junior cutter.
On 24 December 1914, aged 16 but claiming to be 18 (both parents having died), he likely forged his sister’s “consent to my son” [sic] and enlisted: No. 1798 Private Bezelle Rabinovitch in 4th Reinf’t of 8th Battalion and joined the main body on 26 May at Gallipoli, defending the ANZAC beachhead and fighting in the Battle of Lone Pine in August. On 6 September, he was sent to Egypt with debility and tonsillitis. Bezelle re-joined his battalion at Gallipoli on 23 November – in time for the evacuation in December – and returned to Alexandria on 7 January 1916.
He was transferred to the 59th Battalion. On 19-20 July, they fought in the disastrous Battle of Fromelles. Bezelle’s record does not give any details of the circumstances of his death; he was posted ‘Missing in Action’ like many of the division’s 5,533 casualties and subsequently “Presumed Buried in No Man’s Land at approx. 5J90 43 to 5K02.5.1 Sheet Hazebrouck 5A” – handwritten in his record. The battalion suffered the division’s heaviest casualties, especially from German machine-gunners on the Sugarloaf.
More than a year later, his family was advised he was ‘Killed in Action, 19 July 1916’.
Information from the Australian Jewish Historical Society.
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