CARTHEW, Henry Travers
| Service Number: | WX6073 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 30 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia, 2 March 1918 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Prospector |
| Died: | Fremantle, Western Australia, 8 November 1993, aged 75 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 30 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6073, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6073, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, ex Fremantle to Middle East | |
| 19 Aug 1941: | Wounded Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6073, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, Tobruk - Missing, believed PoW | |
| 13 Nov 1941: | Imprisoned PoW No:33511 Captured 3 August 1941 while on fighting Patrol at Tobruk | |
| 10 Aug 1945: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6073, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, ex Liverpool to Sydney NSW | |
| 24 Aug 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX6073, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Henry Travers Carthew's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
'Now and again a few SS soldiers would start throwing their weight around' (National Archives Australia) Private Henry Travers Carthew deposed regarding his time as a German PoW, describing conditions with '90 men in a wooden hut with one small stove and never enough wood. Bedding a straw palaise with two blankets... very little food, poor quality, bad cooking facilities'. Henry was Reported WiA, Missing believed PoW on 19 August 1941 in Tobruk, and confirmed as a PoW (No:33511) on 13 November 1941. Henry (Private; Service No:WX6073) had enlisted in July 1940 and was serving with 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion in Tobruk when he was taken PoW. He was Interned in a number of Camps - including Camp No:54 at Fara Sabina (North of Rome, Italy), Stalag 18C (317) in Austria, Stalag VIII-B near Lamsdorf in Silesia and Camp VIII-A near Grolctz in Lower Silesia, and worked underground in coal mines. Recovered on 6 May 1945, Henry returned to Australia and, after time in Hospital, was Discharged in August 1945.
The second of three children - sons who all served in WWII - Henry was born in 1918 in Perth WA to Thomas Henry Carthew (b1876 at Running Creek in Myrtleford, Victoria) and Elizabeth McGee (b1882 in Melbourne, Victoria). Thomas was a Prospector at Balgarrie, Coolgardie WA in 1911 when he and Elizabeth married. The family lived in Yellowdine, Yilgarn, Kalgoorlie - where Thomas was a Railway Repairer - and at Southern Cross, WA - where he was a Length Runner on the water pipeline (riding out daily on a bicycle with a hammer and plug along a designated length of the pipeline to identify and repair any leaks. By 1925 Thomas had moved his family to Bencubbin WA where he was a Railways Ganger, before moving to Perth WA in the early 1940s.
Henry worked in Coolgardie WA as a Prospector before enlisting in the Australian Army in July 1940. Following his Discharge, he settled in Perth WA and was working as a Mental Attendant in 1947 when he married Ellen Tobin (b1918 in Newport, Victoria) - Ellen was a Nurse at Heathcote Hospital (a government hospital for people with mental illness). Henry and Ellen settled in Perth, and later Fremantle, where Henry worked as a Mental/Male Nurse. Ellen died in 1991 and Henry in 1993.
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