PLACKETT, Lewis
| Service Number: | 1768 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 7 February 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 49th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Breaston, Derbyshire, England, July 1881 |
| Home Town: | Kingaroy, South Burnett, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Saddler |
| Died: | Killed in action, Mouquet Farm, France, 3 September 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
Serre Road Cemetery No.2 Beaumont Hamel, France Plot XIX, Row B, Grave No. 13. |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 7 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1768, 49th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 1768, 49th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: SS Hawkes Bay embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
| 20 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 1768, 49th Infantry Battalion, SS Hawkes Bay, Sydney |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
When he died, Lewis Plackett was husband of Ida Brunckhurst (formerly Plackett), of Rosalie, Queensland. He was the father to three small children.
He had been born in Derbyshire, England during 1881 and had served for 20 months in the Boer War with the South African Constabulary. After the Boer War he travelled to Canada and during 1912 had arrived in Queensland with his wife and children.
He only enlisted seven months before his death during the Australians last attack on the formidable Mouquet Farm position during September 1916.
One soldier gave a detailed account of his death in Plackett’s Red Cross wounded and missing file, “Private Plackett was one of a machine gun team with me when he was killed by the concussion of a high explosive shell at about 4.30 a.m. Sunday morning the 3rd of September. He was about 5’7”, heavily built, dark complexion, black hair and moustache. He wore the King’s Ribbon for the Boer War. He told me he had been married 10 years, had met his wife in Canada and brought her to Australia, and he took up a scrub selection at Iron Pot Creek, between Jandowae and Kingaroy in Queensland.”
His three children and his wife were all awarded pensions later in 1916. Ida, born in Canada, later remarried in Brisbane during 1918.
Lewis Plackett’s remains were discovered in 1929 near Mouquet Farm by the Imperial War Graves Commission, thirteen years after his death. His identity disc was present and attempts were made to send it to Plackett’s wife, Ida Brunckhurst, who it seems may have relocated back to Canada. Lewis Plackett’s remains were reinterred in the Serre Road No.2 Cemetery.
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