MACCARTHY, Henry Harold
| Service Number: | 615 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Lieutenant |
| Last Unit: | 4th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Tasmania, Australia, 1895 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | The Leys School, Trumpington Road Cambridge, England. |
| Occupation: | Sheep Farmer |
| Died: | Killed In Action, Pozieres, Somme, France, 23 July 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
Pozières British Cemetery Grave number III. H. 21. INSCRIPTION - PROMOTED TO HIGHER SERVICE |
| Memorials: | Bothwell War Memorial, Men of Bothwell Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Dec 1914: | Involvement Private, 615, 6th Light Horse Regiment, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Forty-One embarkation_ship_number: A41 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec 1914: | Embarked Private, 615, 6th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Forty-One, Sydney | |
| 23 Jul 1916: | Involvement Lieutenant, 4th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: awm_unit: 4th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Lieutenant awm_died_date: 1916-07-23 |
Help us honour Henry Harold Maccarthy's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
He was the son of Harold Irving MacCarthy and Margaret MacCarthy, of Mount Pleasant, Launceston, Tasmania. He went to The Leys School in 1908 at the age of 13 and went into School House. He was a Cadet Corporal and a Member of the Bisley VIII.
On leaving school, he returned to Australia to work on the family sheep farm.
At the outbreak of war, he enlisted at Bothwell, Tasmania and joined the New South Wales Light House Regiment serving with distinction in the Mediterranean. He was wounded at Gallipoli in 1915. He was then granted a commission in the Australian Infantry and was sent to France. He was killed in action at Pozieres during the Battle of the Somme on 23 July 1916. He was aged 21 and had reached the rank of Lieutenant.
He is one of three Australian casualties of the Great War who are commemorated on the Leys School War Memorial.
Leys School is a co-educational Independent school. It is now a day and boarding school for about 560 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen.Trumpington Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB2 7AD, United Kingdom
In the First World War, 927 Leysians joined the armed services and 146 of them died. A memorial to the old Leysians who died, costing £48,000 and funded by donation, was unveiled on 6 June 1920 by the Duke of York. The memorial consists of four rows of names divided in the middle by a statue of an armoured St George, below which is written "To The Immortal Memory of Old Leysians Who Fell In The War Of 1914–1919", and in large block capitals the words "My Marks And Scars With Me To Be A Witness For Me That I Have Fought His Battles Who Now Will Be My Reward."
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