Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Service number: 3912

Amess Street, North Carlton, is relatively short, with not quite three hundred houses. Men from thirty of those houses served in World War 1.

When John Sydney Hopley enlisted on 12 July 1915 his family had only recently come to live in Amess Street, at number 95, one of a terrace of four houses recently completed and named Medic, Suevic, Afric and Runic for ships of the White Star line. The house at number 95 was first occupied in 1908 and the Hopley family was the third to live there. John's parents, John Sydney Hopley and Mary Anne (née Doyle) had previously lived at a number of different addresses in Carlton and North Fitzroy and John had earned his living as a painter. His early life had not been easy - at one point he and two older siblings had been made wards of the state. But by the time they moved to their comfortable new house in Amess Street, John appears to have been prospering and was describing himself as a civil servant. By this time his family consisted of seven children, including his oldest son and namesake John Sydney (born 1893) and second son William Thomas (1897).

John Hopley's enlistment papers show his age as 22 years and seven months, his complexion as ruddy and his occupation as labourer. It is also recorded that he had previously been rejected because of the condition of his teeth. In reply to the question about previous convictions, he stated that five years previously he had been convicted of pilfering from the Railways Department, but was "allowed off" on a good behaviour bond for 12 months. Five months after enlistment, however, John Hopley was discharged on 3 December 1915 as medically unfit because of pleurisy. His file includes a letter dated October 1915 from a Dr Spring at 107 Rathdowne Street stating that "Mr Hopley is still under my care suffering with mitral disease and is not fit to resume work. I do not think he should try to go on with military work at all". But his patient was determined. Now 23 years and two months, he reapplied on 19 February 1916, citing his previous AIF service of 155 days, was accepted and embarked on the Commonwealth in September of the same year. Disembarking at Plymouth, he proceeded very soon after to France.1

Army life was clearly not as he expected. His records show that he was twice disciplined for being AWL, forfeiting on one occasion eight days' pay and five days on the other. On 27 September 1917 he was wounded in action, shot in his right shoulder, and two days later was transferred to England. By February 1918 he was still in hospital, now suffering from epileptic fits, and in July 1918 he returned to Australia. Before the war had ended he had again been discharged as medically unfit with heart disease.

A year after the war ended, John Sydney Hopley married Gladys Byrne and, despite his health problems, lived to the age of 79, dying at Springvale in 1972.

Notes and References:
1 The Argus, 18 May 1911, p. 9, has details of this case under the headline Railway Men in Trouble.

Carlton in the War - Stories of the Men and Women Who Served This page is dedicated to the memory of just a few of the many men and women who served in World Wars 1 and 2, and other conflicts. All have a connection with Carlton, North Carlton or Princes Hill. Some were born or had lived in the area, while others gave a Carlton address for their next of kin. Others returned to Carlton after the war and went on to live productive post-war lives.

http://www.cchg.asn.au/greatwar.html