Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Gary Mitchell, Sandgate Cemetery, Newcastle

104 years ago today, on the 20th November 1915, Private Herbert Stanley Dunn, "C" Coy. Warwick Farm Depot, labourer from 21 Coal Street, Islington, New South Wales and Parry Street, Hamilton, N.S.W., father of one, was laid to rest at Sandgate Cemetery with full military honours, age 25. CATHOLIC 1-08. 30.
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1724550/

Born at Hamilton, New South Wales on the 21st September 1890 to David William and Mary Emily Dunn nee Bennett; husband of Alma Winifred Dunn (Ling) nee Canham (married 1913, died?), Herbert enlisted September 1915 at Newcastle, N.S.W.

Also known as Sonny, he fell from a train from Sydney to Liverpool (Merrylands, N.S.W.) on the 17th November 1915.
Herbert Dunn was the second youngest of six children born to David William Dunn and Mary Emily Bennett who had married in 1881 at Raymond Terrace.

Herbert entered the world in 1890 and his birth was recorded at Waratah. At the age of 23 years, he married Alma Canham in Hamilton and the birth of a child followed in 1914.

Herbert was living with his wife and child in Cole Street, Islington, when he decided to enlist for service in the 1st A.I.F. His enlistment at Newcastle on the 21st September 1915 saw him attached to C Company at the Warwick Farm Depot in Sydney. A report published in the Sydney Morning Herald of Saturday 20 November 1915 explained the circumstances that brought his life to an unexpected end.

Shortly after midnight on Thursday the body of a man in soldier’s uniform was found on the railway line at Merrylands. Deceased's name was Herbert Stanley Dunn. He was 25 years of age. It appears that the deceased was travelling by the midnight train to Liverpool, and was sitting in the doorway of the car, with his legs hanging over the front.

Suddenly he was seen to fall forward and disappear under the carriage. It is thought that he fell asleep. His body was conveyed to Newcastle, his funeral taking place on the 20th November, 1915.
The deceased, who was 25 years of age, was a native of the Newcastle district, and up to the time of enlisting for the front was employed in the permanent way branch of the railway workshops at Honeysuckle Point. The funeral was a military one, and was largely attended, including Lieutenant Drew (D Company), Sergeant Lee and Corporal Trice (C Company), and a detachment of his late comrades from Warwick Farm camp. The cortege was preceded by the firing party, followed by the band of the 16th Regiment of Infantry.

Then came the gun-carriage containing the coffin which was wrapped in the Union Jack and covered with wreaths, and drawn by a number of Naval Reserve men. The pall-bearers were Privates E. Copper, R. Goldie, J. Bryant and P.A. Malcolm, of C Company. About 300 members of the Expeditionary Forces, (including the recruits at Broadmeadow camp), with members of the Newcastle and Northern District Naval and Military Association and other units walked in the procession.

Mr. J. T. Wright represented the northern branch of the New South Wales Football League, and Mr. J. Sharpe the Central Football Club, of which the deceased was an active member. The Very Rev. Father J. O Donohoe conducted the service, after which the Last Post was sounded by the buglers.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/137963240
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137963297

The late Private Dunn, who had spent all his life in and around Newcastle, was highly esteemed by all who knew him. He was very popular amongst his associates in the workshop, as well as with his comrades on the football ground and in the military camp, where his untimely death is deplored, and there is the deepest sympathy with his widow and child.

His name has been inscribed on the Muswellbrook War Memorial and The Capt. Clarence Smith Jeffries (V.C.) and Pte. William Matthew Currey (V.C.) Memorial Wall. I have not located his name on any Islington Roll of Honour, but would be inscribed on the Hamilton Central League Football Club Roll of Honour.

Plaque in New South Wales Garden of Remembrance, Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney.
http://sandgate.northerncemeteries.com.au/index.php/war-heroes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=103&aso=exact&s_f=id&data_search=420507#2

Mr Dunn was the second 1st A.I.F. soldier to be laid to rest at Sandgate Cemetery.

Lest We Forget.

The listing in the NSW Government Gazette for 31st December 1914 shows a Herbert S Dunn employed in the Permanent Way Shops in Newcastle as a temporary yard labourer.

Dunn was born in Hamilton about September 1891.  He enlisted at Newcastle on 21st September 1915. He was married to Alma Winifred. They had a son. He was transferred to Warwick Farm Depot nominally allotted to the 12th Battalion for training. Iit was during that time that he died by falling from a train near Merrylands about midnight on 17th/18th November 1915 after only two months in the AIF.

A pension of £1 per fortnight was paid for the upkeep of his son.

He is buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Sandgate, Newcastle.

Since Herbert Dunn never served overseas or entered a theatre of war, he was not eligible for the award of any service medals. By August 1923 Alma had re-married, though at that time her name was Alma Marie Alford Ling. This disagrese with the name of Winifred, which is recorded on Dunn’s death certificate. Since he was never taken on the strength of a unit of the AIF, he was never given a service number.

- based on notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board