Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold Stuart Kidner was born in 1896 in Petersham, NSW to parents Harry Pauling and Ella May Kidner. He was a courageous and persevering man who throughout his life ventured into foreign places to work towards a greater good, whether that be as a soldier in World War One, or as a missionary in Africa for the Church of England. He attended Technical High School in 1911-12, where he became an upstanding young member of society and graduated with his Intermediate Certificate in 1912.[i]

On the 21st of February, 1916, Kidner enlisted at Bathurst in the Australian Imperial Force at the age of 19. Having seen the casualty lists following the Gallipoli landing, Kidner joined the war well aware of the dangers that were involved. Beginning 13 months of training in Bathurst on 12th April 1916, he spent time at the Bathurst Showground Military Camp, and received training specifically as a medic at the Liverpool Field Hospital and 4th Australian General Hospital. On 10th May 1917, he farewelled his family as he sailed out of Sydney on the HMAT Marathon towards Devonport, England.

                                                                                                                                                      Upon disembarkation in Devonport on 20th July 1917, Harold Kidner was transferred to the Australian Army Medical Corps Training Depot at Salisbury Plain, travelling via Southampton. Here he received his final training as a medic before being assigned to the 8th Australian Field Ambulance on 30th September 1917. The 8th Field Ambulance had been assigned to support the 8th Brigade, 5th Division during their battles. This brigade had just defeated the German defences in the Battle of Polygon Wood, and Kidner was to be a part of this unit for the remainder of the Third Battle of Ypres, and for the remainder of the war.

Along the Western Front where Kidner was fighting, conditions were much the same throughout most battles, with trench warfare dictating horrible conditions and men standing in waterlogged, muddy trenches for days on end. Rats and lice ran rampant throughout both armies, and trench foot was one of many diseases which threatened to cause serious harm to soldiers at any given time. In addition to this, soldiers in the trenches were under constant attack from the opposing German army and had to constantly withstand the wrath of the inescapable French winter.

For the next year, Kidner and the rest of the 8th Brigade participated in battles along the

Western Front. During many of these battles, he experienced thousands of fellow young men dying around him in the depressing and destructive conditions that became the norm during the Great War on the Western Front.

After the Hundred Days Offensive, which was a series of offensives where the Germans were pushed out of France, and were forced to sign the armistice on 11 November 1918, the Allies’ victory was officially recognised. However, the Australian government was now tasked with bringing the thousands of Australian soldiers in Europe back home. Harold Stuart Kidner was a part of this group, and he in particular was forced to wait in England for approximately six months after the war had been won, during which time he along with the other soldiers were staying in camps in England. Kidner disembarked from the HMAT Main in Sydney on 23 July 1919, after roughly 2 years away from his home and family.

Upon return, he studied to become an accountant, and worked as one for a time. However, he found his calling as a member of the Church of England, attending the Melbourne Bible Institute, where he was a student and the Institute’s first secretary.[ii] After this, he continued his studies at Ridley College in Melbourne, where he was ordained as a deacon in 1928 and a priest in 1929. At this point he joined the Church Missionary Society of Australia, which sent him for service abroad in Africa. On December 31, 1929, he sailed out to Tanganyika, modern day Tanzania, to work in the Australian diocese of the Church of England. Tanganyika was Britain’s share of German East Africa, and the presence of German colonists and Nazi Germans in 1934 led to some difficulties, however as a whole the mission was quite successful with the natives accepting them.

While overseas, he met and married Winifred O’Sullivan, who was also a missionary in Tanganyika. Financial issues led Kidner to conduct lantern lectures in Australia in 1935 to raise funds for continued work in Central Tanganyika, an area which was the special responsibility of the Church of England in Australia. Towards the end of Kidner’s time, he was involved in the British government’s attempt to launch a groundnut growing scheme in Tanganyika.[iii] This caused controversy due to the failure and high costs incurred because of the project. Overall the 20 years he spent in Tanganyika were a success, during which he helped to educate the natives about health and agriculture, as well as teaching them to read and write and converting them to Christianity.

When he returned to Australia, he was the general secretary of the Victorian branch of the Church Missionary Society from 1950 - 1958 before retiring with his wife to Castle Hill, Sydney. He continued to raise money for missionaries well into his elderly years, until he passed away on 12th August 1989 at the age of 93. Throughout his life, Harold Stuart Kidner displayed unparalleled bravery and perseverance to leave a positive impact on the world.

By George Kekatos

Sydney Technical High School

Bibliography:

Cole, K. (1971). A History of the Church Missionary Society of Australia.
Sydney Morning Herald (1930). New Missionary - The Rev. H. S. Kidner. [online] Available at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16615297 [Accessed 29 July 2018].
Tibbitts, C. (2007). Rain and Mud: the Ypres - Passchendaele Offensive. [online] awm.gov.au. Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/rain-mud-the-ypres-passchendaele-offensive [Accessed 1 Aug. 2018].
Australian War Memorial. Memorial Glossary | The Australian War Memorial. [online] Awm.gov.au. Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/learn/glossary [Accessed 21 Jul. 2018].
Mallett, R. 5th Division AIF. [online] Diggerhistory.info. Available at: http:// www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/ww1/1aif/5div/5th_division.htm [Accessed 24 Jul. 2018].
Awm.gov.au. 8th Australian Infantry Battalion. [online] Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/ collection/U51448 [Accessed 24 Jul. 2018].
Australian War Memorial (2018). Harold Stuart Kidner. [online] Awm.gov.au. Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2450126 [Accessed 21 Jul. 2018].
Australian War Memorial. AWM4 Subclass 26/51 - 8th Australian Field Ambulance. [online] Awm.gov.au. Available at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4/26/51/ [Accessed 29 Jul. 2018].

[i] Sydney Morning Herald 1912 ‘Intermediate Certificates 1912”
[ii] Sydney Morning Herald. 4 Jan. 1930 ‘New Missionary’. Accessed at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16615297
[iii] Farmer and Settler. 14 Oct. 1949. ‘African Peanut Scheme “Has Not Yet Failed”’. Accessed at  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article117395851