HEAVENS, George
| Service Number: | 4431 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 19th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Swindon, Wiltshire, England, 25 May 1887 |
| Home Town: | Rockdale, Rockdale, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Shunter |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 14 November 1916, aged 29 years |
| Cemetery: |
Serre Road Cemetery No.2 Beaumont Hamel, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board |
World War 1 Service
| 9 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 4431, 19th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Nestor embarkation_ship_number: A71 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 4431, 19th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Nestor, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
George HEAVENS (Service Number 4431) was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 25th May 1887. He joined the NSW Government Railways in Sydney as a temporary labourer in May 1914 but after three weeks was ‘no longer required’. He was re-employed, however, in July as a porter in the Sydney District. He was living with his brother Henry at Rockdale when he enlisted in the AIF in Casula in December 1915, giving his ‘trade or calling’ as ‘Shunter’.
He embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT ‘Nestor’ with reinforcements in April 1916. He landed in England in June and was sent to France. He was ‘taken on strength’ by the 19th Battalion in September.
He had a week in hospital with scabies in October 1916.
On 14th November 1916 he was reported ‘missing in action’. A month later a Court of Enquiry determined that he had been killed in action on that date. However, his remains were not located at that time.
In 1934, a letter to George’s brother Henry informed him that:
‘ … during the course of recent exhumation work near Flers, France, the Imperial War Graves Commission [as it then was called] was successful in recovering the remains of this soldier which have since been re-interred with every measure of care and reverence in… Serre Road Cemetery No. 2, situated near Beaumont Hamel where a permanent headstone will shortly be erected and engraved with his full… particulars… I enclose herewith an identity disc found at the time…’
Henry Heavens replied:
‘I sincerely thank you… It is a great relief to know what had become of my brother, as missing may mean anything and it is far more comforting to know for certain that he died doing his duty than that he may be still wandering somewhere unknown… I have had an uneasy feeling if that were the case, so you can see how I feel to know he has been found at last. I also thank you for forwarding the identification disc which I received quite safely and was very pleased to get it and shall value it as a memento for all time…’
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board