George Henry MESH
Year of Birth: 1894
Place of Birth: Croydon, Queensland, Australia
Date of Enlistment: 1 May 1916
Date and Place of Embarkation: 23 December 1916 Sydney, New south Wales, Australia
Ship: HMAT Demosthenes
Rank: Acting Corporal
Unit(s):41st Infantry Battalion
Regimental Number: 2769
Died: 1 September 1918
George Henry Mesh was born 4 August 1894 in Croydon Queensland to Jacob Mesh and Louisa Elizabeth Cole. His father, originally from Switzerland, was a miner in the goldfields and when his wife, Annie, died in Sydney in 1891, Louisa Cole became mother to his two young children, Mary (b. 1888) and John (b. 1890).
The couple subsequently had a large family together, Alice (b. 1892), Ellen (b. 1895), George (b. 1894), Henry (b. 1898) Ivy (b. 1900), Frederick (b. 1902), Francis (b 1905), Lily (b. 1908), Cora (b. 1911) and Phyllis (b. 1916).
George was 22 when he enlisted in the A.I.F. on10 May 1916 in Cairns. He was single, and a miner from Forsayth on the goldfields west of Cairns. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 154 pounds with a fair complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair. His religion was Church of England and named his father, Jacob, as his next of kin.
He embarked from Sydney on 23 December 1916 with the 41st Infantry Battalion on the HMAT Demosthenes, arriving in Plymouth England on 3 March 1917 where he joined the 11th Training Battalion. He spent several weeks sick in Fargo Hospital.
Three months later, on 3 July he left Folkstone, Kent for Rouelles, France where he was taken on strength with 41st Battalion on 20 July. Soon after on 3 August, he was appointed Lance Corporal, promoted to Corporal on 31 August then to Training Sergeant on 13 October.
On 1 February 1918 he was awarded the Military Medal “for bravery in the field”.
On the 19 April, he returned to Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire in England, the headquarters of the A.I.F. Overseas Training Brigade where he spent a month before returning to France where he rejoined the 41st Battalion on 2 May. He was appointed Training Sergeant on 14 August and killed in action on 1 September.
The Australian Red Cross Wounded & Missing Files revealed what happened on that day.
Although he was buried straight away, his body was exhumed and reburied in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.
In June 1919, at his parents’ request, Sgt Mesh’s Military Medal was to be presented to them by the Wolfram Recruiting Sub Committee at a public function.
Online Resources
NAA: B2455 (MESH G H) National Archives of Australia
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
National Library of Australia: Trove Digitised Newspapers
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre
Queensland Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages
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