JENNER, Harry
| Service Number: | 2679 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 August 1916, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 59th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia, date not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Forge Creek, East Gippsland, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Drover |
| Died: | Accident , Warragul hospital, Victoria, Australia, 1958, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Bairnsdale Forge Creek Great European War Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Aug 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Oct 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2679, 59th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '20' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Nestor embarkation_ship_number: A71 public_note: '' | |
| 2 Oct 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2679, 59th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Nestor, Melbourne | |
| Date unknown: | Involvement 59th Infantry Battalion, Fromelles (Fleurbaix) |
Help us honour Harry Jenner's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography
2679 Private Harry Jenner, with the 6th Quota of Reinforcements for the 59th Battalion AIF joined the battalion in Egypt, where it was formed.
Harry was wounded five times, gassed on numerous occasions and evacuated to England twice.
He never said much about the war when he returned except to tell his son Ron that as a machine gunner in the 59th he used the sign of the cross before heaping lots of lead on the advancing Germans. Ron said he thought his father meant that when he sighted the Vickers MG it was the the sights that made the cross, but was never sure.
When Harry returned from the War he had a severe cough but went back to being a drover and in 1958 when on his horse driving cattle into the stockyards, he was hit by a milk truck and died three days later in hospital.
'I remember him as I grew up riding his horse with his lemon squeezer drovers hat, kelpie dogs alongside, and a Winchester 73 secured to the back of the saddle in its leather gun bag.
He would drive cattle in from the grazing land on the southern hinterland of the Baw Baw National Park.
By himself and with his dogs he would take a couple of days to get the cattle to the Stockyard for auction.
Our house in Trafalgar was on the official stock route so I use to watch him ride pass pushing the cattle along and not even a wave to me standing on the side of the road.
I think he knew it was me stealing his silver to feed my milkshake habit.
When he was hit by the milk truck he was taken to the Warragul hospital and I visited him wearing my uniform and just before he died he asked me to come close and he then asked me "were they looking after the horses in the Artillery?" I told him yes and a little while later he passed away, three days after been hit by the truck.
It has been with me all my adult life and I still can't fathom the depth of cruelty that both the men and the horses suffered in that war.'
Anecdote as related by Harry's Grandson, John Lea - Smith
Click images to start slideshow.