The below information about Private Heeger was provided by Ron McIntosh:
Ernest was born in 1892 at Goulburn, NSW. He enlisted in the Australian Military Forces for services abroad on 18 July 1915, at Liverpool, NSW. At that time, he lived with his parents, Charles and Lousia Heeger, at 35 Maitland Road, Islington, in the Newcastle area of NSW. Also recorded on his enlistment form were the below personal details:
- He was a natural born Australian, 23 years and 6 months old at the time, and employed as a carpenter.
- He was 5 feet 8 1/2 inches tall and weighed 152 lbs.
- He had a dark complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes.
Ernest was assigned to the 5th Division, 8th Brigade, 30th Battalion 'B' Company and issued with service number 443. He embarked from Sydney, NSW, on 9 November 1915 on the vessel HMAT Beltana (Ship No. A72). He disembarked at Suez on 11 December 1915.
The 5th Division commanding officer was Major General James McCay. On 13 July 1916, McCay was informed they would be the first division to go into full scale battle. The 5th Australian and the 61st British divisions began the attack at Fromelles, at 6pm on 19 July 1916. The two inexperienced divisions fighting side-by-side suffered shocking losses of 5,500 casualties, with 470 taken as prisoners of war in a period of 24 hours.
On 23 June 1916, Ernest arrived at Marseillea and on 20 July was wounded in action at Fromelles. He was admitted to 2nd Australian General Hospital at Wimereux, with gunshot wounds to left shoulder, under arm, and back. He also had a possible fracture of his spine, with some dead bone present. He was then transferred out of France to the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester, England.
On 23 August 1916, his service records show his home address was changed to Carlingford Road, Epping, NSW, after his parents moved to the Sydney region.
On 13 February 1917, he sailed for home, departing from Plymouth, England, for Melbourne, Victoria. He was on board the HT Benalla, which arrived on 13 April. He returned to 2MD in Sydney for discharge as medically unfit for service. This became official on 27 July, after being classified with Permanent Incapacity on 12 July at 4th Australian General Hospital at Randwick. From 14 February 1918, he received £2 Pounds ($4) per fortnight as his service pension.
Interestingly, Ernest is the only Heeger recorded who saw active service for Australia, particularly being of German descent.
There is a photograph of Ernest held by the Queanbeyan Museum, called 'Our Queanbeyan Boys No. 3'. It is available online from the Australian War Memorial. Other photos are available via Ron McIntosh's Flickr account, including one of Ernest in his uniform, reproduced from glass plate negatives taken in 1915.
