Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold Wardale Greenwood embarked in Melbourne on the HMAT Ballarat on 19 February 1917 and arrived in England at Devonport two months later. During that time he was appointed acting sergeant but over the next few months he moved up and down between the ranks of private and acting sergeant. In November 1917 he was sent to an officer cadet training battalion in Oxford. The confidential report on his performance while there rated his education and military knowledge as excellent and his power of command and leadership as good. It was noted that he had a BA and MA from the Durham University. The assessor rating his performance wrote, 'This cadet had the misfortune to break his shoulder during the course, which stopped him at work in the field. He has shown extra ordinary aptitude for organisation & he knows his job thoroughly. He organized the coy games, concerts with remarkable skill, & has set a splendid tone in everything. On account of his age I should think it would be far wiser to employ him in some organising branch of the service, than as a platoon officer not that he would not be splendid at the latter position.'
Commissioned as a second lieutenant he proceeded to France in May 1918 rejoining his comrades in the 38th Battalion. In the previous year the battalion had suffered massive casualties in the battles at Broodseinde and Passchendaele in Belgium. In August 1918 the battalion was redeployed to France where it was involved in the Allies offensive action against the German army. It was during this time that Lieutenant Wardale-Greenwood was wounded in the right arm and head. Invalided to England he was discharged from hospital on 17 December 1918. A few days later he applied for early repatriation giving 'family reasons' to justify the request. His request was granted with the proviso that arrangements were to be made to utilize his services as an Educational Officer on the voyage to Australia.

Details of life events prior to Military Service:---Harold Wardale-Greenwood was born on the 29 October 1875 to John Tatham and Mary Ann Greenwood in Louth, Lincolnshire. He was the fourth child in a family of four children, all boys. His father was a chemist. In 1895 he was a student at Hatfield Hall, a college associated with Durham University. He graduated in 1897 having passed his BA finals in Classical and General Literature as a scholarship student who was awarded exhibitions. He stayed at Hatfield for another two years having been awarded another scholarship but his field of study is not recorded. He took his MA degree at Durham University on 25 April 1906.
Prior to completing his master's degree he was nominated in 30 January 1899 to the curacy of Witton Gilbert where he boarded with the Hetherington family. He remained at Witton Gilbert until 1905. He had been ordained as a deacon in 1899 and as a priest in 1900 in the Church of England by the Bishop of Durham although originally baptised at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Louth. In 1905 he became the secretary of the Church of England Temperance Society for the Diocese of Durham and two years later was appointed rector of the parish of St Cuthbert and Blaydon-on-Tyne. He remained there until 1910 when he was made vicar of St Thomas Bishopwearmouth. In the Crockford's Clerical Directory of 1913 he was listed as 'travelling'. He had in fact travelled to Melbourne in the Mongolia with his wife and five children. His association with the Anglican Church in Australia was not as a clergyman but his name is etched on a stained glass memorial window at St Augustine's Mentone as a member of the parish.
Harold and Mary Beatrix Wardale-Greenwood (Watts) had married at Durham in 1901. She was the daughter of the Rev Arthur Watts who was vice-principal of Durham Training College for Clergymen. She had two older brothers.

After returning home from the conflict in Europe to Melbourne and taking up residence in the 'Cottage' in Bourke Street, Cheltenham he was employed as secretary of the Federal Bureau of Commerce and Industry, a position which he said put him into 'close touch with trade and commerce in general, and in particular with primary and secondary production throughout the Commonwealth and in this State.' He also had a personal interest in commerce. In November 1922 an advertisement was placed in the Argus inviting people to purchase shares in a new company registered as Australian Road Transport Limited Harold Wardale-Greenwood of Cheltenham was noted as a director in the company which aimed to provide heavy haulage and carrier services. The proposal was to immediately purchase four steam wagons from the Atkinson Steam Waggon Company, and later another six. The prospectus indicated that great profits were to be had, and once the shares were sold a regular transport business could be in operation within three months.
A little more than one year later the company was declared bankrupt. It was earlier in that same year, not long after the launch of the transport company that Wardale-Greenwood announced his resignation from the Shire Council and his decision to move his family to a property he owned in Wodonga, North East Victoria. The weatherboard, five roomed house on two and half acres in Lawrence Street, Wodonga valued at about £800 was put up for sale in 1929 by the Official Receiver of the Law Courts, Melbourne, in order to discharge Wardale-Greenwood's debts. He had been declared bankrupt.

Losing the property in Wodonga, Wardale-Greenwood and family moved to Portland where he became a temporary assistant teacher at Portland Higher Elementary School, teaching students in years seven and eight. The following year, in 1930, he was appointed an assistant teacher on probation after an inspector commented that he was becoming accustomed to the syllabus and was stronger on 'the literary side than the mathematical side.' His appointment as a Class V teacher was confirmed with two excellent reports from inspectors. One wrote, 'a scholarly teacher prepares well and presents clearly and logically and easily secures the cooperation of his pupils.' The second inspector expressed similar views, writing 'A kindly and stimulating teacher who plans his lessons well, is original in his method of presentation and uses the BB (Blackboard) to very good advantage and records a very good influence on his pupils.' Unfortunately for pupils and Wardale-Greenwood this situation did not last. In September 1931 he retired due to ill health.
By 1934 Mary Beatrix Wardale Greenwood, wife of Harold, purchased a property in Blair Street, Portland. From that time on Harold was once again contributing to community affairs. He became the secretary of the Portland Citizens' band and secretary of the Committee of the Portland Hospital. In 1938 he carried on a lengthy dispute with the local council, reported in the local paper, wanting his wife's name on rate records for the Blair Street property, replaced with his own. The reason he gave for this request was so he could stand in council elections. The Council response was that the change was unnecessary as Mr Greenwood could offer himself as a candidate without being listed on a local government electoral roll.

Mary Beatrix Wardale-Greenwood died on 24 March 1941 while living at 14 Turner Street, South Camberwell. She was 62 years of age owning no real estate but with a bank balance of £476/2/3 to be distributed amongst her seven children. The executors of her estate were her two sons, Arthur John Wardale-Greenwood of Wallace and Harold Wardale-Greenwood who was serving as a chaplain in the Australian Imperial Forces. Like his father, Harold Wardale Greenwood, was an ordained minister but in the Presbyterian Church. After graduation from Melbourne University and the Melbourne College of Divinity he was appointed to Stanley in Tasmania. With the outbreak of World War II as Captain Harold Wardale-Greenwood, he was appointed Chaplain of the 2/19 Battalion and went with the first convoy to Malaya where he saw action against the Japanese. Falling back to Singapore with his battalion, he along with many of his fellow soldiers was captured and imprisoned in Changi by the Japanese. Later they were transported to Sandakan in Borneo where thousands of prisons of war and civilian slave labourers died in a forced march. Captain Wardale- Greenwood survived the march only to die a month before the surrender of the Japanese forces in August 1945. Unlike Captain Wardale-Greenwood his father survived the war but died shortly after at 71 years of age in 1946. His occupation was noted as secretary. His death was due to circulatory failure and congestion of the lungs. While he died in Geelong he was buried at the Springvale Crematorium. Harold Wardale-Greenwood was a very well educated man who related well to people, working hard to improve their conditions. He had a strong social conscience but made some poor business decisions which seriously impacted on the latter years of his life.