BODINNER, James
| Service Number: | 596 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 11 March 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Richmans Creek, near Quorn, South Australia, 18 March 1889 |
| Home Town: | Boulder, Kalgoorlie/Boulder, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Draper |
| Died: | Perth, Western Australia, 2 June 1956, aged 67 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Boulder Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 11 Mar 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 596, 28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 24 May 1915: | Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 28th Infantry Battalion | |
| 29 Jun 1915: | Embarked Sergeant, 596, 28th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Fremantle | |
| 29 Jun 1915: | Involvement Sergeant, 596, 28th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 22 Sep 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Sergeant, 596, 28th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, GSW to face | |
| 11 Mar 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Sergeant, 596, 28th Infantry Battalion, ex Portland per HS Suevic | |
| 26 Jun 1916: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sergeant, 596, 28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour James Bodinner's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
'Dear Henry and all the boys, No doubt you have heard I have had the bad luck to get wounded (a bullet to the face) ... It smashed my teeth and gums about a little. On top of that I got pneumonia, which I must say, played the very devil with me. I have been in hospital for seven weeks, and am likely to be here for two or three months yet! .... My word the old Turks gave us a hot time. They can fight all right ...." (Trove - 4 November 1915; from 2nd London General Hospital). Sergeant James Bodinner (Service No:596) was serving with 28th Infantry Battalion in September 1915 when he was shot in the face, and following some time in hospital in Malta, was evacuated to London, and from there returned to Australia and Discharged in June 1916. He had enlisted in March 1915 in Boulder WA.
Born at Richman's Creek nr Quorn in South Australia, James was the fifth child of Charles Bodinner (b1846 in Cornwall, England) and Margaret (Maggie) Powell (b1855 in Dublin, Ireland). Charles was a Miner when he emigrated in 1856, arriving in Adelaide, South Australia on board the Hooghly. Charles and Maggie married in 1880 at Richman's Creek near Quorn, South Australia where they lived before moving to Boulder WA in the late 1890s.
James worked as a Draper in Boulder WA and was a member of the Kalgoorlie Brass Band. He served in the AIF in WWI (Sergeant; Service No:596) and in 1917 in Guildford WA married Frances Emily Cooke (b1893 in Melbourne, Victoria). The couple divorced, and James led a troubled and itinerant life through the 1920s and 1930s in Hobart, Tasmania (where he worked for Cascade Brewery) in Bega NSW (where he was a Presser and Cleaner). He used a number of aliases (Tonkin, Brown and Wilkinson) and was a Commercial Traveller with convictions in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. James was an unemployed Storekeeper in March 1942 when he enlisted in the ACMF (Private; Service No:W61075) and died in Perth WA in 1956
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