Charles Bird

Charles Bird

Personal Information
Date of Birth	c1886
Place of Birth	Sydney, New South Wales
Death	Not known "Not known" contains an extrinsic dash or other characters that are invalid for a date interpretation.
Place of Death	? New South Wales
Age at Enlistment	30 years, 1 month
Description	5'4" (1.63 m) tall ; 154 lbs 69.853 kg ; brown complexion ; blue eyes ; brown hair
Occupation	Labourer
Religion	Church of England
Address	Jarrahdale, Western Australia
Next of Kin	Wife , Mrs Kathleen Beatrice Bird
Military Information
Reg Number	4377
Date of Enlistment	7 Mar 1916
Rank	Sapper
Unit/Formation	28th Battalion, 11th Reinforcement transferred to 5th Field Company - Engineers and attached to 2nd Division HQ, and AIF HQ.
Date of Embarkation	31 Mar 1916 ‒ 24 Apr 1916
Ship Embarked On	HMAT A9 Shropshire Fremantle to Egypt
Date of Return	1 Jun 1919 ‒ 8 Jul 1919
Ship Returned On	SS Somali
Fate	Wounded in Action 27 Jul 1916 Pozieres Returned to Australia
Monument	Jarrahdale Honour Roll ANZAC Memorial Park (Byford)
Medals	British War Medal Victory Medal

Pre War

Electoral Roll entries - 1910 Irishtown near Northam, a labourer; 1912 - 1916 a mill hand at No 6 Mill, Jarrahdale, 1917 listed at No. 1 Mill. Jarrahdale with Kathleen. Early in 1916 he married Kathleen Beatrice Gallant in Perth. In late 1917 Kathleen had moved to Helen street, Bellvue.

War Service

Charles signed his enlistment papers at Jarrahdale. A week after entering Blackboy Hill camp, Charles was allocated to the 11th reinforcement draft for the 28th Battalion. Travelling with them to Egypt, on arrival he was sent to the 7th Training Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir.

On 10 May 1916 he boarded the HMT Scotian at Alexandria for Marseilles, arriving on 18 May 1916. While in the 2nd Division Base Depot, on 18 Jun 1916 he was sent to hospital - no details are available.

At no point does his records show him joining the 28th Battalion, and he is not on the Nominal Roll for the battalion published in Neville Browning's book "The Blue and White Diamond" However, his records contain an entry on 27 Jul 1916 when he was wounded, albeit not severe enough to require a stint away from the front, the reporting authority was the Commanding Officer of the 5th Field Company - Engineers so it would appear he was detached to them at that time. On 2 Sep 1916 he was formally transferred to the 5th Field Company Engineers.

On 5 Apr 1917 until 8 Oct 1917 he was detached to the 2nd Division Engineers HQ, and again from 14 Aug 1917 to 26 Dec 1917 he was detached, this time to the7th Field Company - Engineers. Each time as a batman for an officer. On 18 Feb 1918 he was again detached as a batman, this time to Captain Burnett who had been posted to the Australian Corps Headquarters. On 21 Aug 1918 this arrangement was made permanent.

On 15 Jan 1919 he disembarked at Folkestone and on 16 Jan 1919 he moved with his officer to the AIF Headquarters in London which was then managing demobilisation, remaining there until late May 1919. On 1 June his journey back to Australia on SS Somali began. Charles was discharged by the 5th Military District on 22 Aug 1919.

Post War

In 1919 Kathleen is living in Helen street, Bellevue. Neither she nor Charles appear on electoral rolls again. It is thought that they moved to NSW.

External Links

• AIF Project
• RSL Memorial