Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harry Richmond Cousens was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire on 14 June 1877 to Clapham Cousens and his 1st wife Sarah Frudd who died in 1880.  Clapham remarried to Esther Ann Leake in 1885.  On 24 March 1886 Harry, his father, sister, step mother and 1/2 brother Sydney Leake Cousens (see own entry on this website) departed London on the 'Roma' arriving in Brisbane on 19 May 1886.  The familys settled in Toowoomba where another 4 children were born including Stanley Clifford Cousens (see own entry on this website).  

From pay records held at the Queensland State Archives, Harry Richmond Cousens served with the 4th Imperial Bushmen as Private 245 from 20 April 1900 to 18 August 1901.  After discharge he then re-enlisted as he served as Private 685 with the 6th Imperial Bushmen from 23 September 1901 to 9 August 1902.  

In a letter written by Harry on 30 August 1900 to his father with letterhead 'Soldiers' Institute Pretoria' he says 'it is now nine weeks since we landed at Capetown and we have been on the march ever since.  First we went to Kroonstad where we stayed for a week ... we then came on to Pretoria where we have been ever since.  We go out for a bit of a trip for a month or so at a time and do a bit of skirmishing and come in again for a spell...... we have just come in after a months chase after De Wet'.  Harry goes on to say they are moving to Lydenburg.  He comments that he doesn't think the Boers are good shots and says the contingent has only had 2 men shot and 3 or 4 die from fever.  Harry writes 'We have knocked up all our Queensland horses & had two lots of remounts.  I have been footing it for three weeks which is not the game it is cracked up to be.  We are doing fairly well as far as tucker goes.  Have never been lower than 3/4 rations'.  Harry then comments 'It is a splendid place for game of any amount of hares, quail, partridges, deer and several other sorts.  It is a very good place for farming as far as I have seen any amount of running water and the Boers irrigate everything... They only grow enough for their own use.  Their man crops are tobbacco and maise which they call mealy. They grind it up & make porridge with is real good.  I am never without a bit of it'.  Harry then comments that the weather has been good with only one wet night at Balmoral which was so cold that an officer and 2 men on picquet perished along with 300 bullocks, 200 mules and several horses.  Towards the end of the letter Harry says he is thinking of remaining in South Africa when it is 'all over' provided he can 'stand the summer' as he wants to see 'what sort of a place it will be for making money'.  Sadly Harry ends the letter saying he has not had a letter from home since he landed.  

On 10 November 1900, Harry writes again to his father from Pretoria, this time on lined paper with no official letterhead.  He is disappointed that his father has not sent a letter yet he (Harry) has already written three.  A single letter from his sister Lucy is all he has received.  The weather is warm with thunderstorms nearly every evening.  Harry writes about being 'wet thorough without any dry change to put on & lying in a pool of water all night' and comments that it is 'grand und soldiering but not for this child again' which is ironic as he reinlisted in 1901.  From his letter, the troops go to Pretoria every 4 to 6 weeks where they were able to get clothes or anything they wanted.  One thing that seems to be troubling him is the poor quality of their horses.  

Harry returned to Toowoomba and appears in the electoral rolls for 1903 and 1905 as a carpenter.  He has followed the trade of his father.  Harry is listed as a labourer in the electoral rolls for Winton from November 1907.  He married Sophy Amelia Meyers in Winton on 11 December 1910.   Six children were born - Clapham Richmond in 1911, Cecil John in 1912, Harry Meyers in 1914, Stanley Clifford in 1915 and Lucy Amelia 1920 (all in Charters Towers) with Louis George being born in Townsville in 1916.  Five of Harry's children enlisted for service in WWII, the exception being the eldest Clapham Richmond Cousens. Harry and family moved to the Ingham area by 1934 and Harry became a Sugar Cane farmer.  He died on 25 August 1963 from heart failure and was buried in the New Ingham Cemetery