SMITHSON, Augustus
| Service Number: | 4312 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 July 1915, Melbourne, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 14th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Collingwood, Victoria, Australia, 1896 |
| Home Town: | Clunes, Hepburn, Victoria |
| Schooling: | North Clunes State School, Victoria |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 7 August 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
Pozières British Cemetery Plot IV, Row N, Grave No. 14, |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Clunes War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4312, 14th Infantry Battalion, Melbourne, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Dec 1915: | Involvement Private, 4312, 14th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Demosthenes embarkation_ship_number: A64 public_note: '' | |
| 29 Dec 1915: | Embarked Private, 4312, 14th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Demosthenes, Melbourne | |
| 7 Aug 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 4312, 14th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières |
Help us honour Augustus Smithson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Robert Wight
Augustus Smithson aged just 19, enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne on 16 July 1915. He embarked overseas on 29 December 1915 and arrived in Egypt in late January 1916.
He was taken on strength of the 14th Battalion at Tel el Kebir on 4 March 1916, where he also spent a fortnight in hospital with dysentery between 11 – 23 March.
The battalion departed Egypt on 1 June and arrived in Marseilles on 8 June 1916, where they immediately entrained for the north.
The Battle of Pozieres, on the Somme, had been raging since 23 July by the time the 14th Battalion entered the line on the night of 6 August 1916.
It was here while defending the hard-fought Australian gains that Pte Augustus Smithson was killed in action on 7 August 1916.
His body was not recovered at the time, and his remains and identity disc were discovered by the Imperial War Graves Commission after the war and re-interred in the Pozieres British Cemetery, France in 1920.
Source: Extract from "Clunes War Memorial WW1" by Robert Wight, June 2022.
Click images to start slideshow.