Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Hubert Roy Grimm was the son of Mary Grimm, his next of kin, and an unknown father. He was born in either October or September of 1894 in Adelaide, South Australia. He grew up in the suburb of Norwood, living at 21 Wall Street when he enlisted in 1916. He was a moulder when he enlisted for war, but post-war employment was not able to be found. When Hubert enlisted on the 29th March 1916, he was 21 years and 4 months old.

After Hubert enlisted he embarked for Plymouth, England where he trained at the Machine Gun Training Depot. From here he was assigned to the 8th Machine Gun Company (4th Reinforcements.) Then on the 11th of June 1917 he transferred to the 5th Divisional Salvage Company. He served with the Salvage Company which was located at Rue de la Papeterie on the Western Front in France.

A Salvage company’s role was to recover any useful and valuable items from the battlefield. They retrieved things such as guns and any other equipment that could be used again, usually they would have to take things from bodies and this could be very disturbing.

Hubert Roy Grimm was admitted to a casualty clearing station on 17th January 1917 in France, suffering from the mumps. He was then transferred to the 14th Stationary Hospital on the 19th January 1917 and was then moved again to the No. 1 Convalescent Depot.

Once he got over his illness he was sent to the Base Details camp. From here he joined the H.G.B Depot in the suburb of Camiers located in France, before rejoining his unit, the 5th Divisional Salvage Company. Hubert was wound in action (gassed) approximately 5 months later and was admitted to hospital again. His next of kin were informed of his injury and where he could be contacted.

He was again wpounded (gassed) on the 14th May 1918 and admitted to hospital. From there he was transferred to the 41st Stationary Hospital until he was discharged on the 4th June 1918. He then joined a unit (the particular unit was not found) and then left for the United Kingdom on leave, roughly four months later on 4th June 1918, he re-joined the 5th Divisional Salvage Company.

About a month after he had re-joined the 5th Divisional Salvage Company, he marched out to return to Australia and then disembarked at Southampton and joined group number 2 in England. 4 days later he joined group number 5 in Weymouth and in that group left England for Australia on 23rd June 1919 on the ‘Orita’. Hubert then arrived back in Melbourne, Australia on 6th August 1919 and a month and half later on the 21st September 1919 he was discharged from the AIF in Adelaide.

Hubert Roy Grimm received two medals, one for serving in World War One and the other one for winning World War One. Anyone who fought in the war was awarded the first medal and anyone who enlisted in the war was awarded the medal for victory.

It is possible that Hubert Roy Grimm married the fifth daughter of the late Mr. A V Pyle and his wife on the 18th September 1920 at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Norwood.

-       Trove Newspapers 1920, 11 Sep 1920 - Family Notices, accessed 5 March 2017 (trove.nla.gov.au)

-       The AIF Project (www.aif.adfa.edu.au) 

-       Service records, Enlistment record signed by the lieutenant, this source is useful to my research as it contains all the information about my soldier and what he did in the war.

-       RSL website, this website helped me find my way around unit diaries, service records, how to research a soldier from WWI and many more.

-       Diary entry/letter, signed by the officer in charge (Major), a letter addressed to his mother informing her that he had be injured (gassed), provided proof