Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

UNDERWOOD John  Henry 356 SGT
4th Light Horse Regiment
1889-1957

John was the fourth child and second son of John and Ada Hoskin; the family of 10 children lived on a farm on the northern outskirts of Violet Town, milking cows and no doubt raising pigs. The children were all educated at the Violet Town State School, one of the earliest to be gazetted in Victoria. They wouldn’t have been educated beyond 6th grade but that would have been adequate judging from the neat hand writing and well-expressed letters which were often published in the Violet Town Sentinel. A credit to their parents.

When John was 25, he and his future brother-in-law, Tom Hancock, enlisted on the same day, 17 August 1914. They were both drafted into the 4th Light Horse, embarking from Melbourne on HMAT Wiltshire two months later.

On arrival in Alexandria they were posted to Maadi, the Light Horse Training camp south of Cairo. The following May the unit departed for Gallipoli where the squadrons, without horses were scattered to reinforce the infantry battalions already fighting there. Much of the regiment’s time was spent defending the precarious Anzac position at Ryrie’s Post.

During this time on 12 October John was invalided to 3rd AGH at Helipolis suffering with influenza. He was discharged to duty three weeks later.

Returning to Egypt after the evacuation of Gallipoli, a 4th Squadron was formed. Two squadrons were detailed to desert defence while the other two were sent to the Western Front. John embarked from Alexandria aboard the Castrian for Marseilles, arriving on 27 March 1916. He was promoted to CPL on 7 July followed by a further promotion to the rank of SGT.

In June, while engaged in hostilities at Messines John was wounded in the left forearm and right thigh. For this he was transferred to 3rd Canadian General Hospital at Cologne, then to army hospitals in England.  He was eventually declared ‘permanently unfit’ and shipped back to Australia to be discharged on 30 November 1917.

After the war John returned to the farm to recuperate; in 1937 he married Agnes Sarah Grogan, the widow of his best friend Robert, joined the tramways department as a cable- tram driver and moved to Glenhuntly. Agnes died in 1949.

John continued to live in Glenhuntly until his death in 1957. Both he and Agnes were cremated at Springvale and their ashes laid in a niche there.

There was a  report in the Violet Town Sentinel telling of an athletics meeting in Egypt in 1915 – ‘CPL James Stevenson and PTE Underwood are upholding the traditions of the district light horsemen, having won events at a military sports competition  in Egypt while the regiment to which they belong also secured honours.’ So there were light moments now and then.

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

Memorials: Main Honour Board, Memorial Hall, Violet Town
                    St Dunstan’s Anglican Church
                    ANA Honour Board

Tree No 30 was planted in 1917 by Rev Williams

In 2013 a Ceratonia siliqua - Carob Tree - was planted by nephews John and David Underwood.

© 2016 Sheila Burnell