Henry James Livermore 1890~1917

　

Henry James Livermore was the third of the ten children to be born to Thomas & Barbara Livermore nee Fugger. Henry entered this world on February 14th 1890 at the Black Range, a small community situated to the north of the larger township of Albury Nsw. Albury, originally to be called “Bungambrewatha”, had been proclaimed a township in April 1839. This had been published in the Government Gazette after Thomas Townsend's plans for the settlement had been approved.

　

The following information about Henry's early life is based partly on the details that have been recorded on the various official documents obtained from the NSW BDM indexes regarding his birth and the births of his siblings and pure speculation on my behalf on what may have transpired thereafter.

　

Unfortunately none of his siblings are still with us, so it is not possible to gain an accurate account of Henry's life, and from what I can gather, nothing has been written down. Even if the younger family members had managed to live to a ripe old age, none would have known much about Henry apart from whatever stories had been related to them by their Mother and Father.

　

The family had left the relative comfort of their surrounds and close family somewhere between the birth of Henry James in 1890 and that of their fourth child Elizabeth Charlotte in October 1892. Henry's father had caught the gold mining bug and had taken the family to the gold fields that surrounded the Tumut area of Nsw.

　

They were to spend the next twelve to thirteen years in these areas and whether the children had been sent to a school in either Tumut or Gundagai is not known. However we do know that in October 1902 the family were living at Rosewood near Tumbarumba and an article found in the Albury Banner & Wodonga Express had this to say:

　

"Mr Thomas Livermore and wife and family who have been residing here (Rosewood) since last December (1901), have left to seek fresh pastures. Mr Livermore came here to try his luck at gold digging, but not being very prosperous at it and with poor prospects of making a living at it, he has gone elsewhere. He has a large family and his departure has lessened the number of scholars on the roll of our Rosewood West school by six".

　

This article suggests that all the children of school age had attended the Rosewood West public school therefore allowing me to draw the conclusion that all the children including Henry were literate.

　

I have doubts that there would have been any extra circular “home” schooling as I feel that both Thomas and Barbara could have been illiterate. I am not even sure if either of the parents could sign their own name. However the only evidence discovered that suggests that at least one of them could write, is what appears to be Thomas' signature on a document for the receipt of Henry's Memorial Plaque dated October 1922 found in Henry's service file.

　

On the family's return to the Black Range by at least August 1903, it's possible that Henry's schooling could have continued at the Black Range Public School under the guidance of Mr Henry Hague. That schooling would have been at best rudimentary and I feel that Henry may have left the confines of the class room in his early teens and that his working life would then have followed the same path taken by his father and no doubt that of his one older and three younger brothers.

　

We can see from Henry's attestation papers when he joined the AIF in August 1915 that at least he could sign his name albeit with difficulty. From this evidence I feel that the comment made above could well have been true, that only the very basic of learning skills had found it's way into Henry's life.

　

We know that his uncle Alfred played football for the Black Range side before his untimely death in 1907. However I have no idea if Henry and his brothers Thomas and Alfred took up the sport or not. It would be wonderful to think that the three boys played alongside one another on any given sunny Saturday afternoon.

　

I have no idea if Henry had been courting one of the local girls? If so, had he in fact found the love of his life before his enlistment? I am sure that there would have been ample opportunity for him to do so! That female contact could well have been provided by his attending the supper dances and euchre parties that were commonly held in the village hall. The area and the people were very socially inclined. Forever raising money for those in need and money to complete the building of schools and community halls.

　

However, this is something that we will never know for certain. We can only but wonder!

　

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The following information regarding Henry James Livermore's service and subsequent loss of life in the AIF, has been verified by records obtained from the Australian War Memorial, National Archives of Australia and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It also contains a modicum of my own thoughts after seeing a photograph of Henry in his AIF uniform:

　

THE PHOTOGRAPH

 

There is no sensation quite like that felt when discovering for the first time, that those seemingly long forgotten, fragmented and fading memories related to you by your grandmother regarding the brother who went away on the "big adventure" and never returned, come flooding back at the sight of a photograph never before seen.

　

I had just made the very pleasant discovery that the young man depicted in the photograph, standing straight, tall and proud in his AIF uniform, was my maternal grandmother's elder brother Henry James Livermore.

　

Standing only five feet seven inches in height, his rifle and bayonet were almost as tall as he, his tunic crumpled at the waist and sleeves, the neck ill fitting and the leggings above the boots made Henry seem smaller than he really was.

　

The doe like brown eyes that stared back at me from that photograph held a certain boyish charm. That they had never seen life beyond the confines of the area of his birth was there for all to see. But there was also a look of expectation, a look of excitement, the look of a fresh faced young lad who belied his twenty four years and seven months. Unfortunately that look of youthful cheer would ultimately disappear to be replaced by one of shock and antipathy. A shock so severe so as to offend his sense of propriety and decency. A look of antipathy so intense and repugnant, conjured up at the sight of his comrades falling in battle in the muddied trenches and barren, bloody fields that was the Somme.

　

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Although never having lived in the area, my father and I had both played for the Lavington Cricket Club but I had never fully understood or appreciated just how entwined my maternal grandmother's life, and therefore mine by association, was with this community. It was always just the fact that my grandmother came from there and it was never given another thought.

　

I had walked in and out of the Urana Road Oval on numerous occasions and not once had I taken any notice of the plaques that adorn the gateway that is the entrance. There in plain sight are the names of the men, and in some instances boys, from the Lavington area who had served their country in both WW1 & WWII. The names at the top of the list preceded by a small cross are those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

　

Among those listed is my grand uncle Henry James Livermore!

　

I hadn't realised how synonymous the Livermore name was with the Lavington area until I had been bitten by the genealogy bug discovering that the first arrival of the family in the area was by William Livermore, the only son of convict parents Thomas Livermore and Elizabeth Dewsnap, circa 1853 and then, after his marriage to Mary Ann Norris in 1854 in Melbourne's Cathedral Church of St. James, the family finally settling back at Black Range some time between March 1864 and July 1865, the previous years having been spent in Tasmania.

　

The marriage between William and Mary Ann was to produce twelve children, the second eldest being Thomas who “married” Barbara Fugger in Albury on May 20 1886 [according to my grandmothers birth certificate]. This union saw the population of Lavington increase by another ten between the years 1885 [year of birth for first child Mary Ann] and 1910. Included amongst this brood were my grandmother Harriet and Henry James.

 

 

　

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LIVERMORE: Henry James

　

• Regimental Number: 2410

　

• Religion: Church of England

　

• Occupation: Labourer

　

• Address: Lavington, Albury, Nsw

　

• Marital Status: Single

　

• Age at Embarkation: 25

　

• Next of Kin: Father (Thomas Livermore)

　

• Enlistment Date: 3 August 1915

　

• Place of Enlistment: Cootamundra Nsw

　

• Rank on Enlistment: Private

　

• Unit Name: 18th Battalion, 5th Reinforcement, 5th Brigade, 2nd Divison AIF

　

• AWM Embarkation Number: 23/35/2

　

• Embarkation details: Unit embarked from Sydney, Nsw, aboard the HMAT A32 Themistocles on the 5th October 1915. The 11,231 ton ship, with a speed of 15 knots was owned by B. G. Thompson and Co. London.

　

• Rank Nominal Roll: Private

　

• Unit Nominal Roll: 18th Battalion

　

• Fate: Killed in Action 3 May 1917 in the Second Battle of Bullecourt.

　

　

Details are from the Australian War Memorial WW1 Nominal and Embarkation Rolls.

　

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Private # 2410 Henry James Livermore enlisted in the AIF on the 3rd August 1915 and after his initial rudimentary training, Henry embarked for the battlefields of France per "Themistocles" A32 HMAT arriving at the training village of Tel El Kebir in northern Egypt in January 1916 before joining the British Expeditionary Forces at Alexandria on the 18th March. Disembarking at Marseilles some seven days later.

　

For the ensuing four months Henry James and the 18th Battalion were encamped about 15 miles south of Boulogne at the notorious British Army base training camp of Étaples nicknamed the "Bull Ring".

　

Under atrocious conditions, both raw recruits from the allied forces and battle-weary veterans, were subjected to intensive training in gas warfare, bayonet drill, and long sessions of marching at the double across the dunes. After two weeks at Étaples many of the wounded who had been shipped back to the hospitals that had been established by the Australians, New Zealanders and the British, were only too glad to return to the front with unhealed wounds. Conditions in the hospital were punitive rather than therapeutic and there had been incidents at the hospital between military police and patients.

　

Facing the enemy of the King for the first time at Pozières, Henry and the 18th Battalion were engaged in this fierce and unrelenting battle to capture this small but strategic village from the 25th July until August 5th 1916.

　

The ferociousness of this battle saw the Australian contingents rotated in and out of the front line on as regular a basis as possible. The 1st Division had captured the village in the early hours of July 23rd but after just three days of continuous bombardment by the German troops they were exhausted and were replaced by the 2nd Division which included the 18th Battalion.

　

On the 4th August, the second last day of the Battalion's ten day tenure at the front, Henry received a gunshot wound to the chest and was evacuated to the 22nd General Hospital at Camiers on the 5th August 1916. It is possible that this took place at either “Sausage Gully“ or “Tara Hill“ according to the 18th Battalion War Diary.

　

After spending time in and out of hospital with recurring bouts of the soldiers malaise "trench feet" and, like so many other young men of the time incurring the odd charge for wayward behaviour, (Henry had been charged with drunkenness when on active service and was awarded 14 days F.P. No.1. The full title was Field Punishment No.1 and consisted of the convicted man being placed in fetters, handcuffs or similar restraint and then attached to a gun wheel for up to two hours per day for three days out of four during the tenure of the punishment. It was nicknamed "crucifixion" by the soldiers. This punishment also included "hard labour" and loss of pay) Henry rejoined the 18th Battalion in January 1917.

　

The Battalion at this time was then engaged in the fighting that took place at Butte De Warlencourt until the end of February. His Battalion also saw action during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line.

　

The Battalion was to take part in three more major battles before the years end. These included Poelcappelle and Menin Gate (Henry's first cousin Joseph Walter Livermore lost his life here) in Belgium and the second Battle of Bullecourt in France.

　

The Second Battle of Bullecourt, fought between 3rd and 15th May 1917, was a continuation of the British 1917 spring offensive north and south of Arras. The aim of these operations was to support a major attack further south by the French under General Robert Nivelle. As the British had at the opening of the Somme in 1916, Nivelle sought a breakthrough of the German lines followed by swift defeat of the enemy on French soil.

　

The Australian infantry of the Second Division advanced east of Bullecourt village at 3.45 am on 3rd May 1917. The left flank, close to Bullecourt, was pinned in the wire but the right and centre, partly sheltered by a half-sunken road, seized and cleared the first two lines of enemy trench.

　

These Australians now advanced towards their second objective, the railway embankment near Riencourt village. Other Australians, further right, were stopped entering the Hindenburg Line trenches by deadly machine-gun fire at the wire entanglements. British forces also failed in their attempt to take Bullecourt itself though some troops seized part of the Hindenburg Line west of the village.

　

The fragile grip that the allied forces held at Bullecourt in the early days of fighting was strengthened in the ensuing 12 days, finally securing victory on May 15th 1917.

　

The official Australian War historian Charles Bean once said of the Pozières ridge: "it is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth". The same could be said of the Second Battle of Bullecourt, the taking of a small, tactically useless village at the cost of more than 7,000 casualties.

　

Henry James Livermore was one of those casualties, his young life snuffed out in an instant on the first day of fighting, May 3rd.

　

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No more would he feel the love and warmth of his mother's caress. No more would he feel the touch of his mother's hands as she pushed back the hair from his eyes. No more would he feel the hard but loving grasp of his father's hand in welcome. No more would he see faces flushed with pride and adulation beaming back at him from starry eyed younger siblings.

　

No more would he see! No more would he feel!

　

At travels end Henry would not be alone. There to greet him would be countless number of comrades, who like he, had paid the highest price in the service of their country.

　

However, there would be one face amongst that multitude of ghostly, misshapened images, one that did not belong to that world of violence and atrocity, one that would be known and loved.

　

That one face would give him comfort knowing he was not alone in that far away place of mangled mind and bodies twisted in grotesque charade. Mary Ann would be there to herald his arrival.

　

At last brother and sister could walk hand in hand once again.

　

 

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According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Henry has no known final resting place, no known grave or memorial reference. However, his name does appear on one of the three walls that have been faced with Portland stone at the Australian National Memorial that sits inside the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery in Northern France.

　

At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra there is a plaque, # 86, that depicts the location of Henry's name in the Commemorative Area. A copy of the aforementioned photo has been donated to the AWM. It's location I believe can also be found in the same area of the memorial.

　

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It still amazes me how one small photograph has had the power to send me on such a journey. Discovering just how important family, and the area they were brought up in, is. It has enabled me to obtain a clearer understanding of when, where and why, other than trying to rely on those fading, threadbare memories of times past.