HUTCHINSON, Herbert Thomas Leavold
World War 1 Service
| 1 May 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2171, 27th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1 | |
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| 1 May 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Keswick South Australia Australia | |
| 21 Sep 1915: |
Embarked
AIF WW1, Private, 2171, 27th Infantry Battalion, embarkation_roll: roll_number: 15 embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Star of England embarkation_ship_number: A15 public_note: |
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| 23 Jul 1916: |
Involvement
AIF WW1, Sergeant, 2171, 27th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , Evacuated ill |
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| 5 Nov 1916: |
Involvement
AIF WW1, Corporal, 2171, 27th Infantry Battalion, 'The Winter Offensive' - Flers/Gueudecourt winter of 1916/17, Seriously Wounded GSW head |
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| 13 May 1919: | Involvement AIF WW1, Sergeant, 2171, Died of Illness - Endocarditis, his heart condition was undetected at the time of enlistment but aggravated through active service. |
A letter to Manoora
A letter received at Manoora from Herbert, dated Easter Monday 1916 said:
“France is very wet and cold. It has been raining ever since we landed, a month ago. It took us three days and nights to get here by train. The last 20 hours of our journey was done through falling snow – a glorious sight. When we disentrained we had a snow fight. The French people on our journey up gave us hot tea, wine and bread. I can just manage to make myself understood by them. It is funny to see the children from about five years of age, smoking pipes and cigarettes, but that is quite common. We are in the trenches for about five or six days, then go back to the town for a day or two, doing fatigue work. It is far safer in the trenches, for ‘Fritz’ has a habit of shelling our billets in the town. When I come back I’ll bring you a pet rat. It has its home under my dugout. My dugout is 6 ft x 4 ft, and 3 ft high, and three of us sleep together, so we haven’t much room; but the closer we get the warmer it is. ‘Fritz’ is banging in a few shells close to our living room this afternoon, so we have to keep our heads well under cover. There has been no damage so far”
Submitted 28 November 2014 by tony griffin
Biography
True name Herbert Thomas Leabold HUTCHINSON
A 21 year old bank clerk on enlistment, his father was Thomas Henry Hutchinson and Herbert listed his mother, Mrs Bertha Elizabeth Hutchinson as his next of kin, when he signed up at Keswick Barracks on 1 May 1915, just after the landing at ANZAC made the news in Australia.
He clearly travelled with his work as a bank officer, and so he is listed on a wide variety of memorials across rural and suburban South Australia.
He arrived in the Middle East aboard the HMAT Star of England A15, too late to see service at ANZAC. He was taken on strength by the 27th Battalion immediately after it evacuated from Gallipoli on 15 January 1916. After reinforcement and retraining, the Battalion embarked for France. Herbert had meanwhile been appointed to the rank of Lance Corporal and then Corporal.
The 2nd Division, 27th Battalion's parent formation, cycled through the “Nursery Sector” near Armentieres before being directed south via Messines to the Somme for the beginning of the Pozieres and Mouquet Farm campaign in late July 1916. During the course of this campaign, Herbert was promoted to the rank of Temporary Sergeant. In late September he was evacuated sick and reverted to his substantive rank of Corporal.
He re-joined the Battalion in late October and on 5 November he went into action with 27th Battalion at Flers.
He was seriously wounded sustaining a serious General Shrapnel Wound (GSW) to the head. He was evacuated to England and admitted to Hospital and then to Perham Downs, an administrative Base Depot, for rehabilitation.
He was not to return to the 27th Battalion until February 1918. He spent most of 1917 on a series of administrative assignments, and periodic hospitalisations for further treatment.
By June 1918, following the German offensive he was back in hospital culminating in an admission for influenza which by then was starting to have a serious impact across NW Europe as a pre-cursor of the post war epidemic that swept the globe.
He returned to Australia, but Herbert's health would never fully recover and he was admitted to the military hospital at Keswick Barracks. He succumbed to the combined effects of wounds and illness in May 1919, and is thus numbered among the 'war dead' of WW1.
Medals
1914/15 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal
Commemorative Plaque
Steve Larkins Aug 2013
Click images to start slideshow.