Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold was born at Tumby Bay on 14 January 1910 to Johann Friedrich Laube and Charlotte Laube (nee Noblet).  He was the fourth eldest 5 children in the family, all boys,.  His father was a "gun" shearer and teamster before becoming a farmer at Marble View (near Yallunda Flat) on the property of Woodstock (784 acres - Sects 190 and 191, Hd of Koppio) in 1904

He undertook his schooling at Marble View School, which was in the Methodist Church at Marble View, and obtained his Qualifying Certificate. He knew hard work from an early age: the day after he left school he was stooking hay and was involved in all the other activities on the family farm.

In 1938 he and his brothers purchased a scrub block at Cockaleechie to add to the farm that they had also leased , with a right of purchase, from Lear's on the south east corner of their family farm, Woodstock. This was a very busy time for the brothers; they had to help their father on Woodstock as well as working brother Ern's farm, the leased farm and develop the Cockaleechie block.

Harold must have had some spare time as he met his wife to be, Iris Heinrich, the teacher at the Stokes School, in 1938 at a tennis tournament at Yallunda Flat. They were married on 15 April 1939 and then lived on Lear's property near Woodstock.

On 3 May 1943 Harold enlisted in the Army. He undertook his initial training at Hampstead and further training at Warradale before being posted to E platoon, 121st Australian General Transport (AGT) Company (Coy) at Alice Springs; one of the many Australian General Transport Companies of the Australian Army during WW2. It was formed from the 8th Reserve Motor Transport Company, an Army Reserve unit, in July 1942.

Little has been written of the AGT Companys; this is surprising given the vital importance of transport services and their support to Military operations. The immensity of the movement task facing Defence in Australia with the lack of North - South and East - West road links, a rail system that was hampered by the differing gauges and the absence of a rail link from the eastern and southern states to Darwin cannot be understated. The AGTs provided the link to overcome these huge transport problems.      

121st AGT Companyy was charged with moving freight from the rail head at Alice Springs to the rail head at Larrimah, for on movement to Darwin. By to-days standards the vehicles were very basic, but then so were the roads (or tracks) that they operated over! In fact the movement from Alice Springs to the northern railhead was described as "up the track" and at convoy speed, which was 20M.P.H (32KPH), took 11 days.

Harold returned to Adelaide for early discharge from the Army on 4 Jun 1945 to undertake essential work on the family farm.  After discharge he moved to Kyancutta with his wife, helping on another of the family farms. After about 6 months they returned to Marble View to continue the development of the scrub block at Cockaleechie: they were able to live at Woodstock whilst their house was built on the scrub block. They moved into the "new" house just prior to the birth of their daughter, Fay, at Tumby Bay.

The couple were above average sports people. Harold played in the first Mortlock Shield in 1936 and represented Eyre Peninsula for 4 years at Centre Half Forward. He won the trophy as "Most Valuable Player" during this time. They retired to Cummins in 1977 and continued their active sporting careers, switching from tennis and football/netball to lawn bowls; they were equally as proficient at this sport.

Harold died on 5 April 2007. He is buried in the Cummins Cemetery.