Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Labourer Alfred Philip Hicks, 33, enlisted in Bathurst where he lived with his wife Nellie and his two children, Marie and Ethel. On enlistment, it appears that Nellie and their children moved to Adderley Street, Auburn, to live with her mother. Hicks and six other Auburn Memorial men were members of the United Ancient Order of Druids, Liberty Plains Lodge.
Enlisting in April 1916, Private Hicks remained in Australia for seven months before embarking on the Beltana in November 1916. Arriving on the Western Front, he marched into the 13th Battalion on 13 March 1917.
Over the next six months, Hicks was in and out of hospital with shell shock, exhaustion, rheumatics, scabies, and pneumonia. He recovered enough to enjoy recreational leave in Britain in January 1918, returning to his unit on the 26th of the month. Private Hicks had a quiet few months before being wounded in action on 1 April 1918. He was taken back to the Dover Military Hospital in the UK, but he died of wounds there on 8 May 1918. He suffered gangrene lung and heart failure.
Private Hicks was buried in the Little Cornard (All Saints) Churchyard in Suffolk, UK. Hicks is one of three Auburn Memorial men buried in Britain. All died of wounds sustained on the Western Front.
The widow of Private Hicks received her husband’s medals in 1923.
Philip Hicks is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre
- NSW Government Railways & Tramways First World War Honour Roll, Central Station (assumed)
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal