Harold John ATKINS

Harold John ATKINS Update Details

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ATKINS, Harold John

Service Number:	100
Enlisted:	Not yet discovered
Last Rank:	Sergeant
Last Unit:	18th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Not yet discovered
Home Town:	Ashfield, Ashfield, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Not yet discovered
Died:	Killed in Action, Belgium, 6 October 1917, age not yet discovered
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient)

World War 1 Service

25 Jun 1915:	Involvement Sergeant, 100, 18th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: ''
25 Jun 1915:	Embarked Sergeant, 100, 18th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney

Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board

Harold John ATKINS, (Service Number 100) who was born on 9 September 1894 at Double Bay, was just 15-years-old when he commenced work as a switcher in Sydney on the tramway system in February 1910. Two years later he transferred to the Chief Accountants Branch as a clerk and soon passed examinations in shorthand, being capable of taking 90 words per minute.
Although he continued to advance through the grades of the branch until 1917, in February 1915 he had joined the AIF and left Australia in June of that year on HMAT ‘Ceramic’. Even though he was only 20 at that time he claimed three years’ previous experience in the 39th Infantry and a year in junior cadets. His clerical skills meant that he was attached to the Australian Records Section in Alexandria during the latter months of 1915 when the Gallipoli campaign was raging. He was then posted to France, again in a headquarters role, in 1916 and promoted to Staff Sergeant in June.
He must have been unhappy with his role away from the fighting and, at his own request, returned to his frontline battalion in April 1917. He was killed in action on 6 October 1917 in Belgium.
(NAA B2455-3038621)

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