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‘Archie’ was born at Narracourte on the 2nd March 1917 to Emily Edith and Hugh Lennard. Hugh was a hardworking labourer, but life with a large family was often a struggle. He regularly applied for labouring contracts with the local council to provide income. He was also reported as being generous with his time when the grounds of the local hospital were being cleared, giving two days’ work with his horse and dray, carting most of the wood that had been grubbed and split. Archie, the fourth son, was one of nine surviving children, including seven sons Charles William, Hugh, Aitchison, Arthur Lawrence, George and Clive with two daughters, Lucy and Louise.
With Archie seven years old in ’24, the house in which the family was living was inspected and found to be unfit for human habitation for several reasons. These included that it was overcrowded with twelve people living in the small stuffy rooms and was infected with insects. There were no proper conveniences, and the dwelling was built on insanitary land. The cleanliness of the house and being so badly out of repair that it would be impossible to renovate, was exacerbated by ‘filthy conditions’ outside. Hugh was given three months' notice to quit the current house and build a replacement or find an established one. He thought six months would be sufficient time to complete negotiations for building a house. Hugh was fined £10, reduced to 5/-.
It appears that several of the children, including Archie, Arthur and Archibald had irregular school attendance, with Hugh being charged under the compulsory clauses of the Education Act. The third time Hugh was before the Court, he was fined 10/ and costs 15/ in the first information, and 10/ and 10/ costs in the second; in default, three days' imprisonment on each. When Archie was six and again aged eight, Hugh was again fined 5/ and costs for not sending his child to school for the necessary number of days. It was money he could ill afford. Even at this stage, there was difficulty with the spelling of Archie’s name as ‘Hazelly’ instead of ‘Hutchison’. His father, Hugh was charged with ‘being the parent of a child, Hazelly Gordon Lennard, aged 13 years and one month, who was enrolled as a scholar at the Narracoorte Primary School, and that he did not cause the said child to attend the said school on July 26, when the school was open for instruction, contrary to the provisions of the Education Act.’ In response, Hugh argued that Archie’s absence was because he had a cold. However, he was fined 5/- and Court fees £1, in default seven days' imprisonment.
That same year, 1929, Archie’s older brother, Hugh James, initially a member of the Narracoorte Light Horse Troop, was charged as a 19-year-old for omitting to return some of his military equipment, having not attended any parades for over two years. This attracted an order for payment of £5 5/9, including £1 costs in default one month's imprisonment. As teenagers, he and older brother, Charles had already attracted attention for breaking limbs from ornamental trees and then charged with disturbing the peace, knocking on doors then running off and throwing stones on house roofs. Ehen before the courts a request was made for the imposition of the highest penalty permissible in the circumstances. The youths were each fined £5 and 15/ costs, in default a month's imprisonment in a reformatory; and the other three lads had to pay £1 and 15/ costs, in default 14 days' reformatory detention.
Money continued to be tight as Archie was caught ‘acquiring’ an overcoat, taken from the Lucindale Institute Hall during the Caledonian Dance evening. He was fined £2, with 5/ cost.
From a very early age, Archie worked as a labourer with his father, Hugh Lennard and brothers, establishing the name Lennard and Sons. However, towards the late ‘30’s Hugh sustained a second snake bite whist working in a quarry, then in ’38 in the same quarry was struck by a fellow workman’s pick in his upper arm causing a deep gash and being unable to work for several weeks.
Soon after, with the outbreak of WWII, 23-year-old Archie was an early enlistee at Millicent on the 22nd June ’40. His married older brother, 29-year-old Charles, had enlisted in Adelaide the previous week as SX5059 and eventually served as a cook with the 2/43rd Battalion. With the Depression making work difficult to find, the army provided young men with the opportunity for regular pay. As Archie’s schooling had been minimal, he was unable to sign his name on his enlistment form, instead marking it in each section with an ‘X’. The enlisting officer wrote what he hoped was the phonetically correct spelling of both first names. These were written as ‘Gordon Hutchison’, rather than the correct ‘Archieson Gordon Lennard’. This was later over-written as his nick-name of ‘Achie’ (where in reality it was ‘Archie’).
Archie was given the number SX6939 and allocated to the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. He nominated his mother, Emily as his next of kin. The Narracoorte Herald proudly announced in July ’41 that ‘Out of a family of seven sons of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Lennard, formerly of Narracoorte. but now residing in Adelaide, six of them enlisted for military service abroad and three of them were rejected. Those who were accepted were Charles William Lennard, Archie Lennard and Aitchison Lennard. These three sons are now serving abroad. This is a good family record for war service.’
Archie and other new enlistees were initially housed in the Motor Pavilion of what is now the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds. Their ‘beds’ were straw filled hessian on wooden pallets. The young men were later given kitbags on which their names were stencilled.
Archie’s battalion then headed to Woodside in the Adelaide Hills for preliminary training. Returning home for a week’s pre-embarkation leave, Archie and others from his battalion including Charles Lawrie SX8497 and his brother Eric SX8498, George Flavel SX7818 and Victor Atkins SX7814 were farewelled with a civic afternoon, hosted by the Mayor of Narracoorte who expressed his appreciation to the guests in the task they had undertaken. The young men were provided with a sumptuous afternoon tea provided by the Cheer-Up Society, before each was presented with a parcel from the members.
Archie then added a further ‘unofficial’ day of leave but was rewarded with seven days of being confined to barracks and a 5/- fine. The following month, he then embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East, in November, arriving on the 17th December. Once in the Middle East, the young men marched to a Staging Camp, but soon after arriving in Dimra, Archie again went AWOL in mid-January ’41, was docked two days’ pay and confined to barracks for a week. February and March the following year also saw Archie receiving similar fines for non-attendance at parade and being AWOL each month. He was given two extra Guard duties, a total of £2 and three days again confined to barracks.
By 22nd July ’42 Archie was wounded in action with a gunshot wound to his left loin. That year was to be a challenging one for the 2/48th. Orders had been received to capture West Point of Tel el Eisa in a dawn attack. In late June ‘42 with Rommel crossing into Egypt, the 2/48th were in an offensive to capture Trig 33, which was achieved on the 10th July. In doing so, over 400 Italian prisoners were taken. The 2/48th battalion then advanced south, capturing the Tel el Eisa station and repelling numerous counter attacks. However, they were eventually forced to withdraw, having suffered over 100 casualties. The 2/48th battalion suffered 215 casualties between the 7th July and 23rd October. Of that number, 64 men were killed and six, died of their wounds. 125 other men were wounded but survived.
In July the battalion was attempting to capture West Point in a dawn attack. In his book, ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’, John G. Glenn described the ferocious encounter.
‘When the troops were well forward of the start-line they came under terrific fire from shells and mortars from the front and left, and suffered heavy casualties. With the slow deliberate movement of perfectly trained soldiers both companies continued the advance in perfect formation, over ground that trembled and erupted with vicious explosions. Through this, sometimes obscured by the smoke and dust, the men moved, and, as they advanced, the fire kept place with them, leaving behind the still shapes of fallen men among the camel bush and sand.’
Back home, the Chronicle carried the names of the killed and injured. Besides Archie, those in his battalion included: Wounded In Action SX6828 Pte Harold R L Baker Adelaide. SX8878 Pte Gerald W Bellinger Millicent. SX9388 Pte Clarence G Brown. Port Wakefield, SX1075 L-Cpl. Eric Brown SX11079 Pte Harold D Brown, Trinity Gardens. SX537 Pte. P. A Carey, Broken Hill. NSW SX7497 L-Cpl Ronald Chinner, Angaston. SX7725 Pte. Cecil Clark, Langhorne's Creek. SX8132 Pte. Cyril H. Fleet, Menlngle. SX7417 Pte. Clarence L Gallagher, Murray Bridge. SX7330 Pte. Allen R Harris, Moonta. SX13570 Pte Charles Holman, Broken Hill. NSW. (Later KIA Oct ’42) SX12363 A-Cpl. Harry B. Irwln. Port Augusta. SX8017 L-Cpl. Charles. G. Manuel. Balaklava. SX8138 Pte Albert. V. McKenzie, Minlaton. SX11302 Pte. Walter Sharp, Magill. SX7952 Pte Kevin P Stephens. Adelaide. SX7294 Cpl. Henry P. Stopp. Keith. SX9034 A-Cpl. Noel A Tietzel. North Adelaide. SX8539 Pte Edward J Young Inf., Morgan.
An extensive time was spent in hospital before Archie left the Middle East, classified as medically unfit, returning to Australia in January ’43. Back home, Archie’s wound was re-diagnosed as a fracture to his left Lumbar and spine, the ilium and sacrum. This later included a bacterial infection of the bone, causing fever and pain (called Osteomylitis of the Ilium). Soon after returning to his battalion in March, Archie went absent for two days, earning the inevitable fine. By September he was, not unexpectedly, described as unfit for service and discharged on the 14th of that month.
The habit of playing two up was almost ingrained in the soldiers, so it was not unexpected that Archie was one of several men caught playing at the Cavan Arms Hotel, Port Wakefield in September ‘44. He was fined £2 with 10/ costs.
The following year Archie married 21-year-old Roma Joyce Kelly of Solomontown in the St. Patrick's Church, Grote street, Adelaide. Archie chose his brother George as his best man. The service was followed by a buffet supper at the home of Roma’s sister. The young newly-weds then lived in Adelaide. Less than two years later, Archie and his entire family was shocked at the news of his older brother, Charles’ untimely death. In an horrific accident, Charles had been crushed between two railway tracks at Mount Gambier. The Narracoorte Herald reported on his ‘excellent six-year war service in the Middle East and New Guinea, taking part in the famous battle of El Alamein. He was one of the first enlistments in this State, and received, his discharge among the first batch, due to his very long service.’ They further added that ‘Railwaymen formed a guard of honour at the cemetery and members of his old Battalion also attended at the graveside.’
Tragedy again struck the family with the death of Roma’s youngest sister, 25-year-old Patricia Pollard, who died in the Port Pirie Hospital in June ’53.
Archie’s parents had retired and were living in Adelaide. They were able to enjoy the safe return of their sons from war. Hugh pre-deceased Emily in July ’55. When 88-year-old Emily died, they were both interred together at Centennial Park Cemetery.
Archie, Roma and his siblings continued to remember their brother, Charlie, killed in such tragic circumstances.
Advertiser Saturday 13 November 1948, LENNARD.—Treasured memories of Charlie, who was accidentally killed October 15, 1947. There is a face that is always with us, a voice we would love to hear; a smile we will remember, a memory ever so dear.— Sadly missed by Achie and Roma.
Advertiser Monday 15 October 1951, LENNARD. — In loving memory of our son and brother, Charles, who passed away October 15 1946 Not a day do I forget you, in my heart you are so dear, we who loved and sadly miss you as it dawns the fifth year. — Inserted by his loving mother, father, brothers and sisters-in-law. LENNARD.— In loving memory of my dear brother Charlie, who passed away Octover 15. Loving memories, silently kept, of a wonderful brother we will never forget. —Sadly missed by brother Archie and sister-in-law Nell.
Advertiser Wednesday 15 October 1952, LENNARD.— In loving memory of dear brother Charlie, who passed away October 15. — Always remembered by Archie and sister in-law Roma.

52-year-old Roma died on the 16th June ’77 and 60 year old Archie three months later on the 8th September. Their remains are in the Cheltenham Cemetery Rose bed. Their plaque bore correct name: ‘Archieson Gordon Lennard’ or Archie.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion