Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
The Bartletts were, in the words of the Edwardian era, a fairly well-to-do family living in a substantial brick house at 8 Alice Street, Auburn. Henry George Bartlett had come out to Australia from London as a youth with his parents. His father had migrated to take up a position as private secretary to the Horden family, the owners of Sydney’s largest department store.
By 1915 Henry George Bartlett had married, was an established accountant and was a prominent figure among the Catholic laymen of Sydney. He was treasurer of the Westmead Boys’ Home, President of the local conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society and editor of the society’s monthly journal. Henry George Bartlett and his wife Elizabeth had eight children, the eldest of which was Henry James Bartlett. No doubt to more easily distinguish the son from the father, Henry James Bartlett was always known as Harry Bartlett.
The Bartlett family were devout Catholics. Gerald, one of Harry’s brothers, would become a priest while another brother, Geoffrey, would become a member of the Marist Brothers teaching order. Harry himself, having been a bright student at the Christian Brothers School in Lewisham and at Marist Brothers Parramatta, entered St Patrick’s College at Manly to train for the priesthood. Eight years later Harry dropped out and took a job as an insurance clerk. No reasons were given but family speculation has it that at the time there was some tension between the very Irish priests at Manly and the Bartlett family who were loyal to the British monarch.
Harry Bartlett 25 enlisted on 5 February 1917 at Sydney’s Victoria Barracks. He was posted to the Army Medical Corps and sent for training as an orderly to the Field Hospital at the Liverpool Camp. Lectures and practical lessons covered an enormous range of medical topics: basic physiology, fractures and their treatment, surgical principles, camp hygiene, bandaging, cause and prevention of venereal disease, sterilization of equipment, nursing head injuries, taking pulse, personal cleanliness and many more.
On 28 October 1917 Private Harry Bartlett embarked on the Commonwealth with the Light Horse Field Ambulance June Reinforcements. The troops disembarked at Port Suez on 10 December 1917 and Harry spent his first and only Christmas abroad in the Moascar Camp near Ismailia on the Suez Canal. He moved north to where the Light Horse were serving but he died of sickness on 28 October 1918, struck down with malaria and pneumonia, in the English Hospital in Damascus, ten days after being admitted. Two days later, on 30 October 1918, aboard the British Light Cruiser HMS Liverpool anchored in Mudros Harbour, the Turkish delegates agreed to an armistice thus bringing hostilities in the region to an end.
In separate packages, received over several years, Harry’s father received his son’s personal effects, his son’s medals, the commemorative plaque, the memorial scroll from the King and the pamphlet, Where the Australians Rest. Harry’s mother, Elizabeth, never got over the loss of her son. She died in 1926 aged 57.
As well as being named on the Auburn War Memorial, the name Harry Bartlett is also found on the memorial on The Corso, Manly. In 2009 a special project to find ‘Manly boys’ of the First AIF that had not yet been recognized resulted in several names being added to the memorial. As Harry had been born in Manly and had spent 8 years studying at the local St Patrick’s College, the family put Harry’s name forward.
Harry Bartlett is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Manly War Memorial
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
Note: The A.I.F. Project website lists Henry (Harry) James Bartlett's war service as the Western Front. This should read Palestine or Middle East, as Harry never got to the Western Front.
