Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Our Family at War.
Several members of our family have done military or naval service.
Ernest Haupt (1884 ‒ 1976).
The first family member to serve in wartime was Ernest Haupt. He was the last of the ten children of immigrants Johann Balthasar Haupt (1833-1885) and Friedericka Borchardt (1846-1932) who married on Wednesday, 15 November 1865 in Gayndah. Ernest was born in Gayndah on Monday, 18 August 1884 and died on Saturday, 30 October 1976 in Maryborough.
Dad’s ‘Uncle Ern’ was a cattleman from Rolleston and enlisted in the Army in Rockhampton on 15 March 1916 at the age of 32 and served in the First World War in France. He went to Europe on the Clan McGillivray which departed from Brisbane on 7 September 1916 and disembarked at Plymouth on 2 November 1916. His WW1 service number was 5607 and he was posted to the 26th Infantry Battalion which was in Europe in 1916.
The 26th Battalion was not actually part of the assault force, but Polygon Wood is listed in their “Battle Honours” which means they were at least somewhat involved. Ern was a “Driver” as his rank (today he would be a “Trooper” or “Private”) which means he was in the supply chain for resupplying the front line since he was part of the 26th. It was a very exposed job involving the pack horses carrying “stuff” up to the line. Horses, due to their reliability and ability to travel over most surfaces were crucial to transportation in World War One. He was in the transport division probably because of his working experience with horses and wagons.
This photo illustrates some of the work environments for the soldiers and horses.


Ern was at the battle of Polygon Wood with the 26th Battalion in 1917. They did all the big “gigs” of that time; Bullecourt, Passchendaele, Menin Road, Yper, Broodseinde etc.
This photograph shows Ern on the left in his army jacket after he was discharged from the army on 4 June 1919. The photo was taken in 1919 at the Eidsvold State School, Queensland. His brother ‘Balsa’ (Balthaser) is beside him at the table.
We visited Ern a few times. On 28 December 1970, he was in Wahroonga Base Hospital at Maryborough, and he told us of some of his experiences in the war. One was when he was leading a horse and a jagged piece of shrapnel about the size of an egg (he said) hit him. It came from a shell which exploded about 20 feet (6 Metres) away and hit him on the pocket of his jacket. Fortunately, he had a small metal drink container in that pocket!
Another was when he was sitting on an ammunition box and an artillery shell landed only a few feet away but buried itself in the mud and did not explode.
He kept the shrapnel fragment and passed it to me for safekeeping. My brother, Noel now has it.
In WW1 Australian soldiers had a reputation of being souvenir hunters. They would take anything they could from captured German soldiers. Ern had kept German and French paper money in his wallet. These are two of them. The usual things souvenired by Aussie soldiers were German watches, coins, revolvers, daggers and photos.

Some of his memorabilia include the piece of jagged shrapnel from a military shell that exploded about 6 metres away and hit him on the chest. It would have been good to know just where that happened in France and where that artillery shell landed in the mud near him.
He also kept Australian and German badges, shell casings, a leather pouch, his wallet and his medals. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal My brother Noel, now has them and wears them with his own service medals when he attends ANZAC Day marches. Noel was a Second Lieutenant from 1 February 1967 to 31 January 1969 and remained on call until November 1978.
During World War II, Ern again enlisted on 17 May 1942 at the age of 58, but this time with the Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) in the 14 Battalion VDC. The VDC were to become active in World War II if we were invaded by the Japanese. Ern’s WW II Service number was Q214645. He was discharged on 22 August 1944.
Ern spent his life working on cattle stations in the Gayndah and Springsure areas. Before and after service in WW1 he was Head Stockman at Consuelo Station near Springsure which in 1924 was one of the largest Cattle Stations in Queensland. It had 380 Horses and 14,000 cattle but no sheep. Ern’s role would have been important in this context. He never married and never learned to drive a car; he once told us.
He was a tall man with a straight back and white hair when we knew him after he retired.
When we were children Mum and Dad took us to visit Dad’s Uncle Ern. He was living with his sister Rica and her husband Christie Dahtler at their home at 58 Capper Street, Gayndah in the 1950s.
In the 1970s, Coralie and I met Ern a few times at the Maryborough Hospital and again when he was in a Hospital in Brisbane (on Lutwyche Road). He was in the Brisbane Hospital for a few weeks and returned to Maryborough but had met another Haupt bloke who was also in the Hospital. When we went to see Ern again, the other Haupt had a message from Ern for us. When we spoke to him, we found that he was a descendant of the Haupt family that migrated to Maryborough. They are not direct relatives.
In October 1976, we were holidaying at Bribie Island and a phone call came to the Caravan Park from Mum and Dad who said that Ern was in a bad way at the Maryborough Base Hospital. We went to see him. Coralie and the two boys did not go to him but when I found him, he was on a veranda in a recliner bed, in the sun. He did not talk. I told him who I was. He did not (could not) respond so I said if he needed anything just squeeze my hand and I would call a nurse. There was no response, but he was still breathing. I had to leave, and I think it was the next day that Mum & Dad got a message that he had passed away.
We took Mum and Dad to his funeral at the Maryborough Crematorium. Years later I tried to find his grave or a marker in the Columbarium. The Undertakers could tell me that his ashes were “scattered”, and he had no marker.
We saw Ern those few times when our eldest son, Craig was 4+ years old.
In 2017, in the last week of Term, the Year 6 students at Pullenvale State School went to visit the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Craig’s daughter Josephine had to put some notes together about a relative’s military service, so Craig asked me if I had anything about Uncle Ern. Craig remembered him!
I gave Josephine all the information about our family’s war service. It was more than she needed but she would have seen how important the connection is to our family.

Contributed by: Tom, Don & Noel Haupt.
Grandnephews of Ernest Haupt.