Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Hubert James Braham was a single, 18 year old (who claimed he was 19), Christian and labourer who lived in South Australia on Prospect Road with his parents. Prior to the war Hubert went to Prospect Primary School and Senior School and when he graduated became a labourer. Hubert was a average sized man weighing in at 59.9kg and at a height of 5’7 feet, with fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. At an age of 19 years he needed permission to enlist in the war. 

When entering the war he was turned down as he had defective vision thus he could not participate in the war, but later, in 1916, on 31st of August, he registered successfully and was sent to Tasmania to train at Camp Claremont. On his forms it states that he passed his eye tests 6/6 on both eyes, which is odd as be wasn’t allowed to fight previously because of his eye sight. At Camp Claremont Hubert trained for trench warfare as he was to be placed in the AIF, where he would be spending a lot of the time in a trench. One month later he left Camp Claremont and boarded the HMAT Berrima. This was a passenger liner in WW1 which served the Royal Australian Navy as a transport ship. On the way to England, Hubert got sick and had to visit the on-board infirmary. 

When he arrived in England Hubert was placed in the 2nd Depot Battalion in the AIF, however this didn’t last long as 4 months later Hubert suffered from facial paralysis when he suffered a stroke where the nerves that control face movement were damaged. This all happened before he left England. The consequence of this injury was that Hubert was immediately discharged from the AIF. He was sent to an Australian General Hospital in England where he had a job to bury people, yet a month later his services were no longer required. He was sent to a nearby Australian Medical Corps (AMC), but he was deemed “physically unfit” to work here and was discharged. The AIF decided it would be a good idea to give Hubert some more training to become a better soldier, thus he was sent to Larkhill, an old training ground in the south of England. 

Soldiers at Larkhill learned how to dig tunnels and get behind enemy lines, making the conditions at Larkhill perfect for this. However Hubert only stayed here for four days and was sent to Durrington, an old burial site where soldiers were buried. However his services at Durrington drew to a close after one month and four days. He was driven to Fargo Mill, a small hospital just outside Larkhill. It is unknown what Hubert did here. After three months he was discharged from the AIF as he still had facial paralysis and defective vision, the effect of this was that Hubert was sent to Weymouth, a cove 96.5km from Fargo Mill to be sent back to Australia. Here thousands of injured Australians who couldn’t fight were sent back to Australia. Hubert tried to enlist twice more but was medically unfit.

After the war there is no information on what happened to Hubert but it can be assumed that he went home to Prospect, South Australia.

What is ANZAC Spirit?

ANZAC spirit is the qualities of those Australians and New Zealand soldiers possessed in WW1. In my eyes ANZAC spirit is Mateship, Courage, Sacrifice and Endurance.

How did my soldier show ANZAC spirit?

My soldier showed ANZAC spirit through mateship, courage, sacrifice and endurance. Mateship was shown by my soldier while he was looking after soldiers all over the world in England. Because of this his fellow soldiers could fight with the support of the medical facilities in England and get better after a wound. My soldier showed courage by signing up to the army. In this act he knew that he was going to a place he had never been before, to fight a unknown evil, to serve his country by offering up his life and to leave his family, friends, and loved ones. Hubert sacrificed years of his life to be over in England to help others that could of died without him making hospitals run smoothly. He also sacrificed his body in the process with a loss of his face muscles. Finally Hubert showed Endurance by being tossed around from hospital to hospital to burial ground to burial ground. In this process many people would have failed to put up with this sort of movement. Most of his days would have been spent doing nothing, if not burring people this amount of time doing boring and tiring tasks would have been hard to bare. Overall Hubert served his country proud by offering his life and time to his country over the first world war.