Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

George Herbert Barton was known as Bert to his mates and family. He served in France in WWI 1915 - 1917 and was wounded three times on the front line. The story of his narrow escape from death is told in our mother's family that he was mown down by machine gun while running with a flag to claim ground. He went down in a bomb crater and lay there until dark, whereupon he, having in his possession a flashlight, alerted his line who sent a rescue party to bring him in. I recall as a child being able to poke into the wound scars across his torso up to the first joint of my index finger, which really turned our stomachs. After his third hospitalisation he was deployed to England and seconded to the Allied intelligence services to work administration duties for the remainder of the conflict. After the war, Bert tried his hand at farming pigs in Devon, farming in Ireland and traveling through Europe in the early twenties. After returning to Australia he was demobbed and joined the public service. In WWII he served as Aide-de-Camp to the Governor-General. He died in the late 1970s having spent his retirement residing in Parkholme, Adelaide. He is survived by his two daughters, Ann Mitchell and Jenny O'Brien (my mother).