JOHNSTONE, James Sterrick
| Service Number: | 5393 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 21st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Kerang, Victoria, Australia, December 1885 |
| Home Town: | Swan Marsh, Colac-Otway, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | War Related, Family’s home, South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 March 1935 |
| Cemetery: |
Fawkner Memorial Park Cemetery, Victoria |
| Memorials: | Whittlesea War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 12 Jan 1916: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 5393, 5th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Jul 1916: | Involvement Private, 5393, 5th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ayrshire embarkation_ship_number: A33 public_note: '' | |
| 3 Jul 1916: | Embarked Private, 5393, 5th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ayrshire, Melbourne | |
| 26 Apr 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 5393, 21st Infantry Battalion, 3rd MD |
Help us honour James Sterrick Johnstone's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From How We Served
The final resting place for; - 5393 Private James Sterrick Johnstone of Whittlesea & Swan Marsh, Victoria, who prior to his enlistment for War Service on the 12th of January 1916, had been employed as a farm laborer.
James was allocated to reinforcements for the 5th Battalion 1st AIF and was embarked for England and further training on the 3rd of July.
Whilst in camp in England James was transferred to reinforcements for the 21st Battalion, and after he was hospitalized for sickness whilst in training, he was sent across to France on the 20th of August 1917.
James was formally taken on strength with his Unit in the field on the 1st of September. With his Battalion committed to the Third Battle of Ypres, James was wounded in the face by shrapnel on the 9th of October, and after being hospitalized he was deemed fit to return to the trenches on the 11th of October.
Again, James would be evacuated for medical care when he was cited as dangerously ill suffering from debility on the 22nd of March 1918. James would recover and he was returned to his Battalion for further frontline service.
On the 23rd of July, James was wounded in action for a second occasion due to suffering from gas poisoning and was evacuated for hospitalization in England being admitted into the Reading War Hospital on the 17th of August.
Following his admission into Reading, James was sent to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford. James would recover enough from being gassed to be sent to the 2nd Australian Convalescent Hospital at Weymouth for ongoing medical care, until he was deemed no longer fit for service in the trenches.
Classed as an invalid due to gas poisoning, James began his repatriation back to Australia on the 16th of October, and following his safe return to Australia James received his official discharge from the 1st AIF for his re-entry into civilian life on the 26th of April 1919.
James’s health was to be forever affected due to his being seriously gassed whilst on active service in the trenches, and his premature death, at the age of 46, occurred at the family’s home in South Melbourne on the 16th of March 1935.
Following his passing, Private James Johnstone, a twice wounded veteran of the ‘Great War’ was formally laid to rest within Fawkner Memorial Park Cemetery, Victoria.
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