HAWKINS, Harold Oliver
| Service Numbers: | 556, V159835 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 September 1914, Citizen Forces, BL |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Goroke, Victoria, Australia, 19 May 1894 |
| Home Town: | Goroke, West Wimmera, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Baker |
| Died: | Illness, Victoria, Australia, 30 May 1943, aged 49 years |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale War Cemetery, Melbourne, Victoria Springvale War Cemetery, Springvale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Kowree Shire Honour Roll, St. Kilda East All Saints Anglican Church Mausoleum Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Sep 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 556, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), Citizen Forces, BL | |
|---|---|---|
| 12 May 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 556, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), ANZAC / Gallipoli, GSW to left knee | |
| 30 Mar 1916: | Discharged AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 556, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), 5th MD, medically unfit due to wounding on Gallipoli |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement V159835 | |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Jan 1940: | Enlisted V159835 |
Help us honour Harold Oliver Hawkins's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From How We Served
The final resting place for;- 556 & V159835 Captain Harold Oliver Hawkins of Goroke and Elsternwick, Victoria who prior to his enlistment in Western Australia for War Service on the 22nd of September 1914 had been employed as a baker.
Harold was allocated to the 16th Battalion 1st AIF and was embarked for Egypt and further training on the 22nd of December. With the commencement of the Dardanelles campaign, Harold’s Battalion was committed to the fighting on Gallipoli, and arrived in the first twenty-four hours of the landing on the 25th of April 1915.
Having gotten through the first weeks of the operations unscathed, Harold was present with his Unit when it was engaged in the capturing of the ‘Bloody Angel’, during which his Battalion suffered greatly.
Within days of this, Harold was reported as wounded in action on the 12th of May, having sustained a serious bullet injury to his left knee. Harold was evacuated from Gallipoli, and was returned to Egypt where he was admitted into the 15th General Hospital at Alexandria on the 20th of May.
From Egypt, Harold was shipped to England for further treatment where he was admitted into the 2nd West General Hospital at Manchester on the 1st of July, and by the 13th of August he had been transferred to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield Park.
Harold was cited as no longer fit for active service abroad, and began his repatriation back to Australia as an invalid, departing England on the 8th of October.
Following his return to Australia, Harold would require on going hospital care for his wounds suffered on Gallipoli, and he received his formal discharge from the 1st AIF for his re-entry into civilian life on the 30th of March 1916.
Due to the outbreak of a Second World War, Harold again presented himself for service with the Australian Military Forces when he re-enlisted on the 31st of January 1940.
Harold was accepted for full time service within Australia, and was to be commissioned as a Lieutenant. By May 1943, Harold had been promoted to Temporary Captain and was on strength with the 2nd Echelon Land Headquarters when he was evacuated due to illness, and whilst still be treated in hospital he succumbed to illness, passing on the 30th of May 1943. Harold had been aged 49 at the time of his premature death.
Following his passing, Captain Harold Hawkins, a wounded veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, and who had chosen to serve in the Australian Military Forces during a Second War, was formally laid to rest within Springvale War Cemetery, Victoria.
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