Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

'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.