Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 4197 RUSSELL Henry  26th Infantry Battalion
 
Henry Russell was born at Goodna near Ipswich on 16th February 1877 to parents James and Mary Russell. He attended school at Goodna. According to information provided by Henry’s father on the Roll of Honour Circular, Henry worked as a carpenter in the Toowoomba and Gatton area between 1894 and 1895. Henry would have been only 17 or 18 at the time and it is unlikely that he had completed an apprenticeship but instead may have worked as a labourer for a carpenter. In 1897, aged 20, Henry took up a farming block at Degilbo. The completion of the railway line from Maryborough to Biggenden in 1890 had opened up good farming land in the North Burnett and Henry was probably just one of a number of new settlers to the district.
 
When Henry presented himself for enlistment in Brisbane on 21st September 1915, he was 38 years old and single. His attestation papers record that he had a ruddy complexion with light coloured hair. Contemporary records indicate that he had a large blond moustache. He stated his occupation as farmer and gave his address as Roma which would indicate he had left the North Burnett some time before. Henry went into camp at Enoggera where he was placed in a depot battalion prior to being allocated as part of the 10threinforcements of the 26th Battalion.
 
The 26th battalion was part of the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division of the AIF. At the time of Henry’s enlistment, the 26th was about to take over front line positions at Anzac but it would take Henry almost twelve months to finally be taken on by the battalion. Henry and the rest of the 100 or so reinforcements boarded the “Commonwealth” in Brisbane on 28th March 1916. Henry named his father, James Russell of Goodna as his next of kin and allocated four shillings of his daily pay of five shillings to his parents.
 
The reinforcements arrived in Egypt in early May 1916 by which time the bulk of the AIF had left Egypt for the Western Front in France. Henry and the others probably spent time in the base camp at Tel el Kabir where they performed garrison duty.
 
Four of the Australian Divisions in France went into their first major action during the Somme offensive in July and August 1916 at Fromelles, Pozieres and Mouquet Farm. Casualties for those two months amounted to 23,000 and the pool of reinforcements in Egypt were moved to the huge British transit and training camp at Etaples on the French coast of the English Channel. Henry arrived at Etaples on 11thSeptember 1916 and then proceeded to join his battalion in the rest areas behind Ypres in Belgium. He and the other reinforcements were officially taken on strength by the battalion on 28th September, one year after enlisting in Brisbane.
 
The frontline positions on the Somme had progressed less than ten kilometres from those captured by the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the AIF in July and August. With the approach of winter and the likelihood that the British forces would be caught in low areas overlooked by the German defenders, the British Field Commander General Douglas Haig ordered a concerted effort to capture the high ground at Bapaume. The New Zealand division in its first major action succeeded in progressing the front to the village of Flers by the end of October. Heavy autumn rains flooded the ground and constant artillery barrages churned the area into a sea of mud but Haig was determined to get his army out of the mud and up on the higher ground.
 
The Australians in Flanders were brought back to the Somme for one last effort. Brigades of the 5th Division made a series of unsuccessful attacks in early November followed by attempts by the 1st and 2nd Divisions to take a system of trenches known as The Maze. The artillery barrage failed to cut the German wire and the attacking troops withdrew without waiting for orders. A second attack was called for the 14th November by the 5th Brigade of the 1st Division but having been sitting in the ooze for nine days, the brigade was in such a poor state that two battalions of the 7th Brigade, the 25th and 26th, had to be attached for the assault. A mix up in timing meant that the troops slogging towards the German wire were exposed to withering fire as the creeping barrage started early. Having dithered in the mud for two days while waiting for rations and resupply, both of the commanders of the 25th and 26th Battalions were relieved.
 
Four days after the fiasco at Flers, Haig closed down the front for the winter. The futile assaults by the Australian divisions had cost them 2000 casualties, one of which was Henry Russell, listed as Missing in Action.
 
It is likely that The Russell family instigated a request for information with the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Service which resulted in a number of statements from witnesses. The statements were often contradictory claiming that Henry had been killed in a trench, shot by a sniper, blown up by artillery or killed at the wire by machine gun fire. The only common thread was that all agreed that Henry was probably dead although no one could state if he had been buried.
 
In June and July of 1917 while the Australian Divisions were resting in Belgium, a series of inquiries were conducted into the Missing from the engagements of 1916. In one such enquiry, having allowed for sufficient time for reports of POWs or hospital admissions to be considered, it was determined that Henry Russell had been killed in Action on 14th November 1916. A hand written addition in Henry’s file indicates that information had been received from the Director of War Graves that Henry had been buried, probably by a British Unit, sometime during 1917. His remains were identified by an identity disc and the disc was eventually forwarded to Henry’s father at Goodna.
 
Henry was buried beside another 26th Battalion man killed at Flers on the 14th November 1916, Francis Brennan a stockman from Many peaks near Gladstone. Their headstone simply show their name, rank, age at death and unit.