MAFFESONI, James
| Service Number: | 84 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 13 April 1915, Enlisted at Liverpool. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 18th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Chiltern Victoria, Victoria, Australia, 1 September 1896 |
| Home Town: | Chiltern, Indigo, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 27 July 1916, aged 19 years |
| Cemetery: |
Serre Road Cemetery No.2 Beaumont Hamel, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Chiltern War Memorial Gates, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Rutherglen War Memorial, Shire of Chiltern Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 13 Apr 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 84, 18th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Liverpool. | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Jun 1915: | Involvement Private, 84, 18th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Jun 1915: | Embarked Private, 84, 18th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
James MAFFESONI (Service Number 84) worked in the Per-Way Branch of the NSW Government Railways. He worked on on the Cullerin to Jerrawa duplication and deviation with his brothers Andrew and Joseph. Another brother, Ernest, a railwayman who also died on active service is included on the Sydney Station Honour Board. Andrew and Joseph Maffesoni served in the AIF as well but survived the war. Joseph was awarded the Military Medal.
James Maffesoni was born at Chiltern Victoria. He enlisted at Liverpool on 13th April 1915. He gave his father John (Gion) Maffesoni of Chiltern as his next of kin. He also cited two years’ service with the Senior Cadets at Albury. He was allotted to the 18th Battalion and embarked HMAT ‘Ceramic’ at Sydney on 25th June 1915. After a brief time in Egypt, he joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on Gallipoli on 16th August. A couple of months later he was stricken with dysentery, admitted to the 5th Field Ambulance and then transported by the Hospital Ship ‘Delta’ to Alexandria. It was not until the new year that he was fit, but with the evacuation of Gallipoli planned for mid-December there was no point in going there and it was not until February that he re-joined his unit. It had left Gallipoli and returned to Egypt. In the meantime, Maffesoni had been Absent Without Leave for six hours and been punished with seven days confined to barracks.
Soon after re-joining the 18th Battalion, it embarked at Alexandria to become part of the British Expeditionary Force in France, travelling through Marseilles on 23rd March 1916. A month later Maffesoni was again in strife, now for ‘conduct to the prejudice of good order & Military discipline in that he did leave Bathing parade without permission’, as well as drunkenness. For this he received 21 days Field Punishment No. 2.
On 27th July 1916 he was posted wounded in action. With no further information available this was upgraded to wounded and missing in December 1916. It was not until July 1917, a year after he was last seen, that it was ruled that he was dead, killed in action.
James Maffesoni had no known grave. However, in 1927 the Imperial War Graves Commission located his remains near Pozières, identified by his disc, (which was forwarded to his father) and after exhumation, interred those remains at Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, Beaumont Hamel, Picardie, France.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.
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