John Henry BOLT

BOLT, John Henry

Service Number: 5304
Enlisted: 4 April 1916, Melbourne, Vic.
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 21st Infantry Battalion
Born: Clunes, Victoria, Australia, 1879
Home Town: Templestowe, Banyule, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Butcher
Memorials: Clunes Soldiers Pictorial Honour Roll
Show Relationships

World War 1 Service

4 Apr 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 5304, 22nd Infantry Battalion, Melbourne, Vic.
26 May 1916: Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 21st Infantry Battalion, Melbourne, Vic.
28 Jul 1916: Involvement Private, 5304, 22nd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: ''
28 Jul 1916: Embarked Private, 5304, 22nd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Melbourne
9 Mar 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 5304, 21st Infantry Battalion, RTA 11 December 1918 and discharged as MU (ear and jaw).

Help us honour John Henry Bolt's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Robert Wight

Aged almost 37 years, John Henry Bolt enlisted in the AIF on 4 April 1916. He embarked overseas on 28 July and arrived in Plymouth, England on 11 September 1916, where he joined the 6th (Brigade’s) Training Battalion at their Rollestone Camp in Wiltshire.

He left England and arrived in France on 17 November 1916. He was then sent to the Australian Divisional Base Depot at Etaples for final training prior to allocation to his unit. Less than two weeks later, on 28 November 1916, he was admitted to hospital with an infected ear and a fractured jaw. The circumstances surrounding the fracture are unknown.

He returned to England the next day and then spent the next ten months in hospital in London, eventually being discharged on 4 September 1917. He never returned to France and remained at the Hurdcott Camp on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire for the rest of his AIF service.

He embarked for Australia on 11 December 1918, where he was discharged as medically unfit in Melbourne on 9 March 1919.

Source: Extract from "Clunes Soldiers Memorial Panel" by Robert Wight, June 2022.

Read more...