HAMLYN, Ernest Albert
| Service Number: | 4148 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 September 1915, Toowoomba, Queensland |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 26th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Yanac North, Victoria, Australia, 22 June 1893 |
| Home Town: | Toowoomba, Toowoomba, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Yanac Primary School |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Flers, France, 14 November 1916, aged 23 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Kupunn HB1, Toowoomba War Memorial (Mothers' Memorial), Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France), Warwick Dungaree March Re-Enactment Plaque, Warwick Dungaree Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Sep 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4148, 26th Infantry Battalion, Toowoomba, Queensland | |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Mar 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 4148, 26th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Commonwealth embarkation_ship_number: A73 public_note: '' | |
| 28 Mar 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 4148, 26th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Commonwealth, Brisbane | |
| 14 Nov 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 4148, 26th Infantry Battalion, 'The Winter Offensive' - Flers/Gueudecourt winter of 1916/17 |
Help us honour Ernest Albert Hamlyn's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Douglas Booth
Ernest Albert Hamlyn was born in Yanac North, Victoria on 22 June 1893, the seventh child of Henry Aaron ‘Harry’ and Christina Hamlyn, nee McCallum. Ernest, along with his other siblings, were taught at the Yanac Primary School by Mr Kneen. While his sisters learned to play the organ and to sew, Ernest and his brothers rode horses and worked on the family farm. The farm grew wheat on 190 acres of land which was cleared for cropping.
In about 1911 the family, including Ernest, moved from Victoria to a cropping and dairying property known as Pamona at Hodgson Vale, south of Toowoomba in Queensland. Prior to enlisting, Ernest worked as a farmer on the family property.
He enlisted for WW1 as a Private at the age of 22 in Toowoomba on 14 September 1915.
Compiled by Doug Booth, [email protected]
Biography contributed by Douglas Booth
Ernest enlisted for WW1 as a Private at the age of 22 in Toowoomba on 14 September 1915. Within a few months he had been assigned to the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion (10th Reinforcements) as a Private and given the Service Number 4148. Ernest embarked with his unit from Brisbane on 28 March 1916 per HMAT Commonwealth for a training camp at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt, arriving there on 5 May 1916. His training there was interrupted by hospitalisation with mumps, firstly for a few days in the No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital at Tel-el-Kebir, followed by a week about 100 km away in the No. 4 Auxiliary Hospital at Abbassia, near Cairo.
After discharge from hospital, he was transferred on 30 May 1916 from Cairo to the 7th Training Battalion at Rollestone in England. From there he embarked for France on 25 July 1916. Ernest joined his unit and was taken on strength on 8 August 1916, immediately after the Battalion’s first major battle around Pozieres. The Battalion was given a short ‘spell’ in Belgium before returning to the Somme in October 1916. By that time the Somme battlefield, as a result of heavy rains and heavy artillery, had become a quagmire. During the battle for Flers, Ernest was operating his Lewis machine gun when a direct artillery hit caused his death on 14 November 1916. He was unable to be buried since the blast had literally blown him to pieces. Although there is no marked grave, the memory of his service and death is recorded at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
Courtesy of Ernest’s great nephew Douglas E Booth [email protected]
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