The AIF Project

Harold Leslie HENLEY

Place of birthBalmain, Sydney, New South Wales
SchoolSydney Grammar School, Sydney, New South Wales
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationUnder graduate, Faculty of Arts
AddressTudor House College Street, Drummoyne, Sydney, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinFather, T Henley, Tudor House College Street, Drummoyne, Sydney, New South Wales
Enlistment date31 March 1915
Rank on enlistmentLieutenant
Unit name13th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/30/2
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A9 Shropshire on 20 August 1915
Rank from Nominal RollCaptain
Unit from Nominal Roll13th Battalion
Other details from Roll of Honour Circular"Enlisted in Naval and Military Force. Left as Private Troopship "Berrima" for New Guinea, returned on 17th February, 1915. Re-enlisted AIF 20th March, 1915. entered 19th Training School for Officers on 19th April, 1915 and appointed 2nd Lieut on 5th June, 1915. Took 7th Reinforcements 13th Battalion on Transport "Shropshire" and left Sydney on 20th August, 1915 as Officer in Charge. Served on Gallipoli as well as in France." Details from Mother
FateKilled in Action 15 August 1916
Place of death or woundingPozieres, Somme Sector, France
Age at death22.9
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
69
Family/military connectionsFather: Lt. Col. Thomas Henley. Hm. Commissioner Australian .....Fund. Details from Lady Henley, Mother.

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