BUTLER, Gerald Bertram
| Service Number: | 69 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 17 August 1914, An original of A Company |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 52nd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Campbell Town, Tasmania, Australia, 4 December 1895 |
| Home Town: | Moonah, Glenorchy, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | School teacher |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 10 August 1916, aged 20 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Hobart Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 17 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 69, 12th Infantry Battalion, An original of A Company | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 69, 12th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Hobart embarkation_ship: HMAT Geelong embarkation_ship_number: A2 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 69, 12th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Geelong, Hobart | |
| 10 Aug 1916: | Involvement Private, 69, 52nd Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 69 awm_unit: 52nd Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-08-10 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
He served at Gallipoli and was promoted to Corporal and on the 18th December 1915 at Mudros was again promoted to Sergeant. On the 25th March 1916 he was charged with being drunk and resisting arrest and was reduced to the ranks. Private Butler mentioned the demotion in a letter to his father dated 23 March 1916:
“Have been in serious trouble – reduced to the ranks. Met an officer (I won’t mention his name)…’old Tasmanian friend…being off duty took some whiskey which made me silly.”
Oddly enough, Butler was reported by numerous eye witnesses as missing in action on 14 August 1916 yet his official date of death is 10 August 1916. In his Red Cross file it is said he was with Lance Corporal Norman John Alexander Hall, 23, of Hobart, after setting out with rations on about 14 August to support troops in the trenches. “A heavy bombardment was taking place and no more was heard of them”. Another soldier stated he was “quite certain” that Private Butler and Lance Corporal Hall were “buried in a shell hole at Pozieres on 14 August 1916 as they disappeared together very suddenly”. Others stated they were in the ration party with Private Butler and Corporal Hall and reported: “They were in a party with us just the other side of Pozieres on August 14th. We were going up our support trenches with rations. We got up to the trenches; on the way back we had to go through a barrage. When we got back next day these two men were missing. They could not possibly be prisoners. There is no further trace of them. They must have been killed in the barrage.”
An entry in his service file by Chaplain Captain J. McKenzie says "I buried the body of 69 Butler 52nd Battalion whom I found dead in the main communication trench between Pozieres an Mouquet Farm about August 12 or so. He had evidently been dead 3 or 4 days and his body was badly knocked about by shell fire."
Gerald's brother, 803 Trooper Henry Edward Butler, 3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment, died of wounds 12 January 1917 in Egypt. Age 25.