MITCHELL, Henry John
| Service Number: | 916 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 3 January 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 31st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Orbost, Victoria, Australia, 6 September 1885 |
| Home Town: | Brisbane, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Natural causes, Brisbane, Queensland, 26 August 1967, aged 81 years |
| Cemetery: |
Balmoral Cemetery, Qld |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 3 Jan 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 916, 41st Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 18 May 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 916, 41st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Demosthenes embarkation_ship_number: A64 public_note: '' | |
| 13 Oct 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 31st Infantry Battalion | |
| 1 Nov 1916: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion, 'The Winter Offensive' - Flers/Gueudecourt winter of 1916/17, Evacuated to the UK | |
| 7 Jun 1917: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion, Battle of Messines | |
| 30 Jul 1917: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres | |
| 26 Sep 1917: | Honoured Military Medal, Polygon Wood, At POLYGON WOOD on 26/28 September 1917, an enemy machine gun held up a portion of our line for a time, but by boldly and skilfully working from shell hole to shell hole, this man succeeded in creeping on the gun, killed the crew and returned with the gun; thus allowing the advance to continue. Throughout the operation, his courage was magnificent.' Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 31 Date: 7 March 1918 | |
| 6 Dec 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres | |
| 10 Jun 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion, "Peaceful Penetration - Low-Cost, High-Gain Tactics on the Western Front" | |
| 8 Aug 1918: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion, "The Last Hundred Days" | |
| 6 Sep 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 916, 31st Infantry Battalion |
Military Medal
At Polygon Wood on 26/28 September 1917, an enemy machine gun held up a portion of our line for a time, but by boldly and skilfully working from shell hole to shell hole, this man succeeded in creeping on the gun, killed the crew and returned with the gun, thus allowing the advance to continue. Throughout the operation, his courage was magnificent.
Submitted 17 September 2016 by Barry Lawford
Biography contributed by Steve Larkins
Henry John Mitchell (1886-1967)
Henry John Mitchell was born 6 September 1886 at Orbost in Gippsland Victoria.
By 1911 he was living in Brisbane at 149 Oxford St Bulimbah, having married Annie Porter.
He enlisted in Brisbane on 3 Jan 1916 aged 30 years old at the time.
He embarked from Brisbane on the troopship HMAT "Demosthenes" on 18 May 1916, and was assigned to the 41st Battalion in th 11th Brigade of the 3rd Division. The Third Division was in training on the Salisbury Plain in England until late 1917 when elements of the Division began to move to France.
By October, Henry had been transferred first to the 49th Battalion, then to the 31st Battalion which had moved to France was serving near Guedecourt on the Somme when, on 1 Nov 1916 he sustained a 'GSW L Arm'. GSW could mean either 'Gunshot Wound' or 'General Shrapnel Wound'. The lead shrapnel balls contained in a shrapnel artillery shell inflicted a wound very similar to that of a a bullet.
He was evacuated to the UK where he spent time in the 4th Southern General Hospital at Weymouth before embarking for France in February. The process by then saw returning soldiers processed through the huge depot at Etaples on the Atlantic Coast of northern France to retrain before being sent back to the Front. By the time Henry completed this process(May 1917) the 3rd Division was in Belgium. Henry returned and after another short bout of illness he was set to take part in the 3rd Divisions first major operation at Messines on 7 June 1917. It was the first major Allied Victory involving the AIF.
In late July the major Allied Offensive called 'Third Ypres' began. Initially it went well for the Allies, and by 24/5 September the AIF was embroiled in major attacks at Menin Road and then Polygon Wood to the east of Ypres.
Henry was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal, but awarded the Military Medal for his action in stalking and destroying a machine gun post and returning with the enemy machine gun - see personal stories for an extract of his citation. The award was promulgated on 31 October as the Third Ypres campaign bogged down in appalling weather.
Henry was wounded again on the 9th December with a shrapnel wound to his right shoulder, necessitating another evacuation to the UK from which he returned in June 1918. On the 8th August the 'great Allied Offensive began and the Third Division was prominent in the advance.
Henry was the beneficiary of a week in a rest camp before resuming duty, by which time the Third Division was providing the Flank Guard for the attack on Mont St Quentin and Peronne in late August early September. By the 5th October the AIF's war was, unbeknown to them at the time, over. They were withdrawn to rest reinforce and recover from 6 weeks of intensive activity which had depleted the AIF to precarious levels. In early 1919 Henry got to see the UK on leave as opposed to looking out of a hospital window as had been his previous experience.
He embarked for Australia on the Troop Transport 'Durham' on 22 May 1919, arriving in Melbourne on 21 July 1919.
He returned to his family at Bulimbah and was discharged on 6 September 1919.
His wife Annie died in 1927. Anecdote has it that he enlisted in WW2 but I can find no record of any WW2 service. By that time he would have been in his mid 50s.
Following WW2 Henry re-married; to Kathleen Patience (nee Bannister). They lived at the Bulimbah address for 20 years before moving to Shorncliff in the early 1960s.
Henry died in 1967 aged 81 years.
Compiled by Steve Larkins from a variety of sources:
NAA Service record
Bulimbah Historical Society Facebook Page
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