Harold Stanley PITCHERS

PITCHERS, Harold Stanley

Service Number: 2550
Enlisted: 27 March 1916
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 58th Infantry Battalion
Born: Booleroo South Australia, 21 October 1892
Home Town: Morchard, Orroroo/Carrieton, South Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Farmer
Died: Killed in Action, France, 1 October 1918, aged 25 years
Cemetery: Bellicourt British Cemetery
Bellicourt British Cemetery (Plot I, Row D, Grave No. 3), France
Memorials: Adelaide National War Memorial, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Booleroo Centre WW1 Roll of Honour, Booleroo Centre War Memorial, Willowie Memorial Hall Stained Glass Window 2, Willowie Schools and District Roll of Honor
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Vietnam War Service

27 Mar 1916: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private

World War 1 Service

25 Sep 1916: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2550, 60th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '20' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: ''
25 Sep 1916: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2550, 60th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Melbourne
1 Oct 1918: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2550, 58th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2550 awm_unit: 58th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1918-10-01

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Biography contributed by Lucy Reddaway

 

Harold Stanley Pitchers was born on October 21st, 1892, in Booleroo, South Australia. He grew up with his mother, Elizabeth Adelaide, his father, William Henry Pitchers and his five siblings, Robert Henry, Herbert Clarence, Arthur Edward, Amy Olive, Ruby Gladys and Walter Gordan. Their family farmland was in 15 Hundred of Willowie and the Booleroo Whim.

Harold enlisted on March 28th, 1916, at the age of twenty three. He had blue eyes and brown hair and his family were Methodists.His height was 5ft 8 ½ , he weighed 132.2 in pounds and his chest measured 33 inches. His service number was 2550 and he left from Melbourne, Victoria with the 58th Battalion as a private. He trained with the base engineers, miner reinforcements as a sapper until September 1916, and left Australia on a boat called HMAT Shropshire on 25 September, 1916. He earne

He died in the War on the 1st of October 1918. (He would’ve been twenty five when he died.) Harold went out at night around 7pm with another signaller, Gordon Emond Ewart, 3305, to lay a phone line at the front of the trenches. They completed the task but never returned, three days later their bodies were found in a shell hole, they were killed in a shell fire.

Red Cross files record that Hilda Duffield (the sister of his brother's wife)  and his mother Elizabeth wrote letters seeking to find out what had happened to Harold.

He was buried in the Bellicourt British Cemetery with his signaller in (Plot I, Row D, Grave No.3, France).

His next-of -kin received his service medals - the British War medal and the Victory Medals.

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