8/07/1915- Completed Medical Examination Perth WA
9/07/1915-To 15th Depot Company as Private
16/07/1915-To 16th Battalion 10th Reinforcements
5/02/1916-To 16th Battalion Reinforcements at Ismailia Egypt
3/03/1916-Transferred 48th Battalion Tel-el-Kebir Egypt
26/03/1916-Admitted No. 2 Aust Stationary Hospital Tel-el-Kebir Egypt ( Influenza ) ex 12th Field Ambulance
27/03/1916-Discharged to 48th Battalion at Serapeum Egypt
9/06/1916-Disembarked Marseilles France ex Alexandria
6/08/1916-Reported Wounded & MISSING IN ACTION France
6/08/1916-Reported KILLED IN ACTION Pozieres, France ( Court of Enquiry 4/05/1917 )
Service Medals Awarded
1914/15 Star – No. 13138
British War Medal – No. 20343
Victory Medal – No. 20267
Memorial Plaque/Scroll – No. 324045
Memorial Inscriptions
Villers- Brettoneux Memorial France
Australian War Memorial Canberra – Panel No. 145
Collie War Memorial, Western Australia.
Soldiers Missing & Wounded Details – 6/08/1916
Informant – Cpl. O’Brien, B Company 45th Battalion AIF France – ” He was wounded while working on a Lewis Machine Gun with myself at Pozieres on 6/08/1916. He was hit in the fleshy part of the thigh and I bandaged up the wound myself and as we were holding an outpost in an advanced position I got permission of the Sergeant in charge to take him back to our front line while he was able to move. Which I did and left him in a dugout there to wait for stretcher bearers as they were doing double work that day and could not get all the wounded away fast enough.
The Battalion was relieved next day and I made enquiries if DEVON had been removed but no one seemed to be sure anyway he was not where I left him overnight so I came to the conclusion that he got away alright “.
18/11/1938 – Letter from Army Records Canberra to Soldier’s Sister ( Mrs L. Annesley, Wittenoom Street Collie WA ) –
” I am in receipt of advice from the Imperial War Graves Commission that a silver pencil-case engraved ” Jack ” has recently been found on the body of an unknown Australian Soldier whose remains were recovered from an isolated grave with those of a number of the 48th Battalion killed in action at Pozieres in August 1916.
Do you have any knowledge of your brother being in possession of a pencil-case as such described “.
AUTHOR NOTE
There is no evidence on the Soldier’s Service File that his sister ever received the above letter, as there is no reply included.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission still lists DEVON as Memorialised at Villers- Brettoneux Memorial, France, therefore having no known grave.
We beg the question – What eventually happened to the Soldier’s remains which had the silver pencil-case? The Soldier, without appropriate confirmation from his Sister, may have been denied his final resting place, and the DEVON Family has never achieved closure.
Should any reader be able to provide further details in this matter, can they please email me accordingly.