Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold Fortunatus HOULT was born in Nanango, Queensland on 1st March, 1891

His parents were Harry Edward HOULT & Jane Gwendolen LINDSAY who married in Queensland on 28th June 1884

He enlisted in Brisbane on 11th July, 1916 and embarked from Brisbane on the ship HMAT Marathon on 27th October, 1916 with the 47th Infantry Battalion, 7th reinforcements

Harold was Killed in Action in Belgium on 30th September, 1917 - no known grave

# 3001 HOULT Harold Fortunatus                  47th Battalion
 
Harry Hoult was born at Nanango on 1st March 1891 to parents Harold and Jane Hoult. It is likely that Harry attended Nanango State School along with his brother Bertram (Bert). Harry’s mother completed a Roll of Honour Circular after his death but the copy in the Australian War Memorial files is so faint that none of the details recorded there are legible.
 
Harry travelled to Brisbane to enlist on 11th July 1916. His younger brother, Bert, had enlisted 18 months before and had seen action at Gallipoli and was about to go into battle at Pozieres with the 26th Battalion. Harry informed the recruiters that he was 24 years of age and gave his occupation as farmer. Letters written by his father in 1918 indicate that Harry was the owner of “Salopia” where he and his parents lived and worked. His parents had financed the purchase.
 
After a period in a depot battalion at Enoggera, Harry was drafted into the 7th reinforcements of the 47thBattalion, part of the 12th Brigade of the 4th Division of the AIF. The cohort of reinforcements travelled to Pinkenba Wharf by train to board the “Marathon” on 27th October 1916. The reinforcements arrived in Plymouth Harbour on 9th January 1917 and proceeded by train to the 12th Training Battalion depot at Codford on Salisbury Plain. Harry spent a short period in isolation with mumps before resuming training.
 
The British command planned a large offensive for the Summer and Autumn of 1917, aimed at securing a breakthrough of the German lines east of the Belgian city of Ypres. The first of the battles planned was an attack against the Messines Ridge on 7th June. Two AIF divisions, the 3rd and 4th, were included in the order of battle. The 47th Battalion, as part of the 4th Division had a difficult time in reaching its objective and as a result amassed 463 casualties (killed wounded or missing) which effectively reduced the size of the battalion by a half. Reinforcements were required to make up the losses and Harry was among a draft of men sent to Belgium to join the 47th. Harry was taken on strength by the 47th at Bomay where the battalion was recovering and resting before resuming training.
 
Once the Germans had been removed from the high ground of Messines to the south east of Ypres, the real offensive, a series of short advances from the Ypres ramparts towards the Broodseinde Ridge and the village of Passchendaele could begin.
 
On 27th September, the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the AIF were included in the attack against Westhoek Ridge along the line of the Menin Road, pushing the defenders back to the south western corner of Polygon Wood. On 30th September, the 4th and 5th Divisions followed up the success of Menin Road with an attack that built on the success of the 1st and 2nd Division. The 4th Division advanced from Westhoek Ridge and Anzac Ridge towards the Tokio strongpoint, reaching the blue line beyond the village of Zonnebeke with little difficulty. Once dug in, the 47th took stock. Some 20 men had been killed, a far cry from the decimation suffered at Messines three months before.
 
Unfortunately, one of the 20 was Harry Hoult. There is no account of the manner of his death but most probably he was the victim of artillery fire. His file carries a hand written notation; “buried”, but there is no indication who had buried him nor how his grave was marked. Polygon Wood was Harry’s first and only action of the war and his comparative naivety may perhaps have contributed to his demise. Jane Hoult received a parcel of a wallet, letters and cards from Harry’s kit bag.
 
Service medals, a memorial plaque and scroll were received by Harry’s father in 1922. Sadly, those medals were recently advertised for sale on e-bay. Harold Hoult’s remains were never located. He is one of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave. Their names are inscribed on the Portland Stone Tablets under the arches of the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in the city of Ypres.
Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign. The ceremony concludes with the laying of wreaths, the recitation of the ode, and the playing of the Last Post by the city’s bugle corps.
For Harry and Jane Hoult, there was also disturbing news about their other son, Bert. Bert had been shot in the foot during an unsuccessful charge by the 26th Battalion at Pozieres in July 1916. He was taken prisoner and his wound treated before being posted to a POW camp. The foot continued to give Bert considerable trouble and he was repatriated by the International Red Cross to neutral Holland in early 1918 where a partial amputation was performed. The amputation was not successful and Bert was repatriated to a war hospital in London where a further amputation was performed. He did not arrive back in Australia until November 1919.