Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From How We Served 
 
The final resting place for; - 1663 Private Joseph Andrew Johnson of Newcastle, New South Wales and Brunswick, Victoria, who at the time of his enlistment for War Service on the 10th of February 1916 had been employed as a laborer.

Joseph had already made himself a noted career as a skilled football player, having been a member of the Fitzroy Football Club’s back-to-back VFL (now known as the AFL) Premiership teams of 1904 and 1905.
Better known as ‘Joe’, Joseph is as well celebrated as being the very first known Indigenous Australian player to be accepted within the VFL/AFL competition, and in doing so, breaking the road for those of his First Nation community who would follow in the century after he first stepped out onto the football field.

Following his success at Fitzroy, Joseph then went on to play for Brunswick and Northcote Football Clubs of the then known VFA (now VFL) competition. Joseph’s last season as a footballer would be in 1914, immediately prior to the outbreak of World War One.
Joseph was allocated to reinforcements bound for the 59th Battalion 1st AIF and was embarked for Egypt and further training on the 4th of May 1916.

Having arrived safely in Egypt, Joe entered into camp at Tel el Kabir, before he was embarked for England. Upon arrival Joe was sent to Codford before being moved to Folkstone from where he would be shipped over to Northern France.

Having arrived in France on the 11th of November, Joe then was sent to the ‘Bull Ring’ at Etaples for his final phase of training before being sent to the frontline.
Joe arrived in the trenches and having been transferred to the 60th Battalion, he was formally taken on strength with his Unit on the 2nd of December and was with his Battalion in the frontline trenches during one of the worst winters recorded in decades.

Casualties due to exposure and illness caused by these harsh winter conditions greatly affect those amongst the Australian troops who were then serving in France and Belgium.

Joe’s service would be continuous from the time he joined his Battalion, until he was evacuated due to sickness on the 6th of February 1917, suffering from Nephritis. Joe was returned to England for hospitalization on the 21st of February, where he was admitted into the Exeter War Hospital and would be treated for the effects of the illness caused by the trench conditions in which he had endured.

Following treatment at Exeter Joe was moved to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Harefield on the 17th of May.

There would be no recovery for Joe, and he was deemed no longer able to serve in the trenches due to suffering from chronic nephritis.

Joe began his repatriation home to Australia as an invalid, departing England on the Hospital Ship ‘Karoola’ on the 3rd of July, and following his return to Melbourne he would be further hospitalized due to illness caused by his time on active service.

On the 18th of October 1917, Joe received his official discharge from the 1st AIF for his re-entry into civilian life.

Joe’s health, however, would be forever affected by his time in the trenches during World War One, and his premature death at the age of 51, which was recorded as being 'sudden', occurred on the 23rd of April 1934.

Following his passing, Private Joe Johnson, a noted trail blazer within the First Nation’s community who is celebrated as having been the first Indigenous player to compete in the Victorian Football League (Australian Football League), but who had suffered greatly whilst serving in the ‘Great War’, was formally laid to rest within Fawkner Memorial Park Cemetery, Victoria.