WITTS, Herbert Leslie
| Service Number: | 5238 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 December 1915, Jerrawa, New South Wales |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 13th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Taree, New South Wales, 5 December 1897 |
| Home Town: | Yass, Yass Valley, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Natural causes, New South Wales, 9 February 1992, aged 94 years |
| Cemetery: |
Rookwood Cemetery & Crematorium |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 15 Dec 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 5238, Jerrawa, New South Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Mar 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 5238, 13th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Star of Victoria embarkation_ship_number: A16 public_note: '' | |
| 31 Mar 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 5238, 13th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Star of Victoria, Sydney | |
| 29 Aug 1916: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 5238, 13th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , GSW (arm) | |
| 4 Jul 1918: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 5238, 13th Infantry Battalion, Le Hamel - Blueprint for Victory, 2nd occasion - GSW (back) | |
| 25 Mar 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 5238, 13th Infantry Battalion |
Lost Son
Herbert was the son of George Witts and Ada Fortescue Hoare. His older brother George enlisted in the New Zealand army as their parents had moved there.
Family do not know why Herbert remained in Australia but it may have been some sort of family conflict as his enlistment documents do not list any family as next of kin, but only a friend of Herberts is named.
During WW1 Herbert was hit with machine gun fire and hospitalised. Somehow his mother in New Zealand was notified that he had died, which was not the case, but all the family then believed he was dead.
After going through his service records I located a letter from the public trustee in NZ which confirms he hadn't died;
***(but that letter incorrectly stated his birth place as Perth, Western Australia on 05 Dec 1898 - when in fact he was born to George and Ada in Taree, NSW exactly one year earlier. It also made no mention of Hebert's twin brother, born on the same day at the same place, Harold M. Witts)***
...but it seems his siblings were never told, as some still believed he had died in 1906, while others believed that he died in the Great War.
His brother George, (my grandfather), returned to Australia after the war, and he never mentioned Herbert, but I am sure if the family had known he was alive it would have been a happy occasion.
Submitted 11 December 2016 by Antony Witts