Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Warehouseman Harold Hahn enlisted on 24 February 1915, indicating his parents lived in Rawson Street, Auburn. He sailed on the Ceramic in June of that year, joining the Anzac forces on Gallipoli on 16 August 1915.
Private Hahn served on the Gallipoli peninsular for nearly four months before being evacuated back to Egypt with Trench Feet, just before all Australian forces were withdrawn in December 1915.
In the reorganisation of troops in Egypt, Hahn was allocated to the 18th Battalion of the Australian Second Division. Moving on to the Western Front in March 1916, the 2nd Australian Division took up a position in the Nursery Sector in the far north of France. Hahn died of wounds in an Advanced Dressing Station on 23 June 1916 from a ‘bullet wound to the head affecting brain.’
Hahn is one of four Auburn Memorial men who are buried in the Brewery Orchard Cemetery in the village of Bois Grenier in the far north of France. The others are Private Henry James Jackson, Private Herbert Aiken, and Private Henry Ernest Horton, all of whom served in the 19th Battalion. The cemetery contains 344 identified casualties of the First World War (UK 205, Australia 125, New Zealand 13, Germany 1).
Harold Hahn is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal
- 1914-1915 Star
