HARRIS, Roy
| Service Number: | 176 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 August 1914, Sydney, NSW |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 1st Light Horse Regiment |
| Born: | Jamberoo, New South Wales, Australia, September 1890 |
| Home Town: | Singleton, Northumberland, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Natural Causes, Anna Bay, New South Wales, Australia, 2 March 1973 |
| Cemetery: |
Newcastle Memorial Park (fmly Beresfield Crematorium) R S W 14 B/92 |
| Memorials: | Singleton War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 176, 1st Light Horse Regiment, Sydney, NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Lance Corporal, 176, 1st Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '1' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Star of Victoria embarkation_ship_number: A16 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Lance Corporal, 176, 1st Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Star of Victoria, Sydney |
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Roy Harris was a 21-year-old farmer from Singleton in NSW when recruiting commenced in August 1914. Harris joined the AIF that same month and arrived on Gallipoli with the 1st Light Horse Regiment in early May 1915. Wounded in June, he returned to Gallipoli in September and spent the rest of the campaign there.
He sent a letter to his mother from Egypt after the final evacuation of Gallipoli which was later published in a Singleton newspaper;
“We left Gallipoli on Monday morning, 20th December, at 4 o’clock. There were only 69 men left of the 1st A.L.H., the rest went at 5 o’clock the previous evening…We were holding the line in front of the wharf while everybody got away from Anzac…The poor Turks were ‘had’, and they thought we were going to attack, instead of making for the boats. Cliff Nowland and I were the only Singleton boys that saw the end of our long and hard campaign. Had the Turks attacked they would have wiped us out or took us prisoners, if we would have surrendered. But we were decided to fight to a man and take up our six feet on Gallipoli with the rest of our dead heroes. However, as luck had it, we had them bluffed.”
Roy Harris was promoted to Sergeant and spent the rest of his war training recruits in the Middle East. On being granted ‘1914 Leave’ due to his early enlistment, he returned to Australia in 1918 before the war had finished and was discharged from the AIF in 1919.
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