Private EVERETT Herbert William (Service No. 4406)

Born in Dungog to John and Henrietta Everett in 1892, Herbert was the eldest of 4 children. At some point after the youngest, Eric was born in 1905, the family moved to Gloucester.

Herbert was working as a dairy farmer on his parent’s farm when he went directly to Casula to enlist on the 4^th of November 1915. He trained at Casula and was assigned to the 20^th Battalion on the 17^th of December, initially to B company, and then to the 11^th Reinforcements on the 16^th of March 1917.  He embarked from Sydney aboard ‘HMAT A71 Nestor’ for England on the 9^th of April 1916. After further training, he proceeded to France to join the 20^th Battalion on the 9^th of September, marching in with the 11^th Reinforcements to Etaples.

After withdrawing from Gallipoli, the 20^th Battalion had been sent to the Western front. The soldiers were in trenches, holding the Bridoux Salient to the south-east of Bois Grenier on the 5^th of May 1916 when there was a heavy German bombardment, causing about 100 casualties. Herbert’s cousin Edward Edwards was among them. Herbert joined the 20^th Battalion in October, when, the entire 2^nd Division was moved to the south again and put back into the line in France once more. In November they launched an attack at Flers, in conditions that were so muddy that they were described by the official historian, Charles Bean, as “the worst ever encountered by the AIF”.

Herbert was sent to the field ambulance sick on the 1^st of December 1916, then sent back to England on 12^th of December to be treated for dysentery. By the time he returned to the front in the New Year of 1917, his cousin Jack had joined the Battalion, but it is not clear if they were aware of each other. If they were, the family gathering was short lived. Herbert was ‘Killed in Action’ less than three months later, during the night of the 1^st of March 1917. A re-adjustment was carried out in the 5^th Brigade’s sector. The brigade deployed with the 17^th in the front line, the 18^th and 20^th Battalions in support and the 19^th in reserve. The 29^th was arrayed with two companies in Gallwitz and Gird Trenches, one in Maxwell Support and one in Hexham Road. The 20^th Battalion Headquarters relocated to an abandoned German dugout in the centre of a railway dump near Butte de Walencourt. The positions in the support line were shelled with resultant attrition and Privates Arthur Beveridge, William Carrucan, Herbert Everett, Julius Illfeld and William Millikin were killed. Herbert was buried 3 miles south-west of Baupaume and later re-interred in what is now called the Walencourt British Cemetery

Awards: British War Medal, Victory Medal.

Cemetery: Warlencourt British Cemetery

Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour;

Gloucester Memorial Clock Tower.

“Lest We Forget”

Contributed by Merridee Wouters (VWM) & edited by Admin.