16905
HUMPHRIES, Arthur Edward
| Service Numbers: | 4912A, 4912 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 59th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | St Arnaud Victoria, 1895 |
| Home Town: | Carlton North, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | 14 August 1965, cause of death not yet discovered, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Payneham Cemetery, South Australia |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 7 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 4912A, 8th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wiltshire embarkation_ship_number: A18 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 4912A, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wiltshire, Melbourne | |
| 11 Nov 1918: | Involvement Private, 4912, 59th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Arthur Edward Humphries's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Heathfield High School
Arthur Edward Humphries (1895-1965) was born in St Arnauds, Victoria to Janet Humphries. Arthur was working as a Clerk before enlisting in the war residing in a terrace house on Drummond Street, North Carlton. Arthur enlisted when he was 21 and two months. At the time, he considered himself a Presbyterian.
Arthur Edward Humphries enlisted on January 9th, 1915, joining the Australian Imperial Force’s 8th Battalion, but his attestation papers were misplaced, so they were filled out again on the 3rd of March 1915 at Broadmeadows training camp, Victoria. After training, Arthur embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board the steamship HMAT A18 Wiltshire on March 7th, 1915.
Arthur fought in the 59th Battalion, which was the third of four Battalions of the 15th Brigade, all being mostly drawn from Victoria. They were shaped as part of the “doubling of the Australian Imperial Force” in Egypt after the extraction from Gallipoli. In May 1916 Humphries was hospitalised in the Middle East for a week with a general debility. The following month he returned to hospital again in Moascar. By 18th June he was considered fit enough to deploy to France.
Arthur paid an unfortunate price at Fromelles in the attack on the 19th of July, 1916. On that same day, when fighting in the 59th Battalion, he was gassed and wounded from a sharpnel wounds to the head and arm and then sent to the 13th Stationary Hospital in Boulogne, France, the next day. Located on the docks, it was initially an old sugar warehouse, hence it often being referred to as the ‘Sugar Sheds’. He was transferred on the Hospital ship St David to England and was admitted to the 1st Eastern Hospital in Cambridge. He was then transferred to 1st Auxiliary Hospital in Harefield to convalesce.
Due to his injuries Arthur returned to Australia on the 13th of February 1917. He was discharged in Victoria 24th May 1917.
Soon after his return from the war, he met Florence Stewart, who would later become his wife. The two had four children together, the first child being Gordon, born in 1918, followed by Shirley, born in 1919. Five years later they had another daughter Pat, and their 4th child, Joan, was born two years later. However, as a result of his war service, he had a shrapnel in his body, which would often work its way out through his scalp. Post war, Arthur also suffered psychologically and emotionally and had difficulty maintaining relationships. This led to a divorce and an estrangement from some of his children. Their oldest two, Gordon and Shirley, spent a lot of their time staying with their aunt, who had no children and was very happy to have them. According to his grandchild, he was somebody who loved a bargain and obsessively bought stuff; however, he was never a hoarder. Arthur was also rather short, so short in fact that he would have to look through the steering wheel of his 1961 Ford Fairlane Ranch Wagon.
He received a Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI) pension. The TPI was granted to members of the AIF who were intensely injured by the war to such an extent that they would be excluded from earning anything other than an insignificant percentage of a living wage (Government). Arthur worked as a bailiff at the Adelaide Local Court in the early 40s, and by 1946, he was living in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In the 50s he owned a tobacconist shop on Semaphore Road. In the 60s he finally retired to Queensland and lived in the Red Cliff Hotel, new Brisbane, for a few years. Arthur returned to Adelaide in 1962, where he died on August 14th, 1965, at 70 years old.
References
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Wikipedia Contributors. “Saint Arnaud.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Aug. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Arnaud,_Victoria.