HENRY, Arthur Milton

 Arthur Milton Henry was born at Geelong, Victoria and was living there when he enlisted on 9 February. 1915. He was a butcher by trade, only 22 years old, and the only child of his widowed mother, Lily (nee Trinder), and her husband, Charles Henry. By 1915, she seems to have and was living at 78 Wellington Parade , East Melbourne as Mrs. Lily Veal. Arthur Henry named her as his next of kin and alloted 3/- and then 5/- a day after his promotion to Corporal on 9 March, 1915.

Arthur Henry was placed in the 24th Infantry Battalion. This battalion, according to the Australian War Memorial site was raised in a hurry from Victoria, formed during the first week of May and sailed at the end of that week from Melbourne on 8 May, 1915, on board HMAT Euripides. The new recruits were trained in Egypt  in July and August, 1915, and on 4 September, 1915, went ashore at Gallipoli. Along with the 23rd Battalion, they spent 16 weeks sharing duty with the 23rd Battalion in the trenches at Lone Pine. This was so exhausting and dangerous that the two Battalions rotated every day. He must have been a good soldier, because on 1 September, he was made temporary Sergeant, a promotion that was to be made permanent on 1 October, 1916. 

On 25 September, 1915, Arthur Henry came down with influenza and was taken to the 1st Casualty Clearing Station, then to the 6th Field Ambulance and finally, on 1 October, to St David's Hospital,Malta, on the Gloucester Castle. He was described as suffering from shock and influenza. On 1st November, he was transferred to St. Anthony's Hospital, then back to Egypt, where he was admitted to the 1st Australian Hospital at Abassia. 

His recovery must have been slow. It wasn't until 21 December 1916 that he left Egypt to rejoin his Battalion. He was initially sent in to join the 6th Training Battalion at Larkhill and, after another stint in hospital, was sent on a course at Aldershot and Portsmouth. He finally rejoined the 24th Battalion at the Western Front, travelling from Folkestone to France on 4 June, 1917, then rejoining his battalion on 10 June. He would have been present at at the 2nd Battle of Bullecourt, where the Battalion suffered over 80% casualties. The next battle was that of Broodseinde Ridge, near Ypres, where Arthur Henry was killed in action on the first day of fighting, 4 October, 1917. The Australians were fighting in heavy rain and under shellfire; one seventh of their number became causalties before the attack began. In the subsequent battle, the Australian divisions suffered 6,500 casualties.

The Battle of Broodseinde:

In the countryside near the Belgian town of Ypres, Australians fought in one of the most costly and horrific campaigns of World War I. Many of them died or were wounded in the epic struggle. In the 1917 offensive, British and French forces tried to roll back the German positions along the low-lying ridges south of Ypres and break through the German lines towards the Channel coast. After eight major British attacks over more than 3 months, the Canadian troops captured Passchendaele early in November. This marked the end of the offensive and the failure of the British strategic plan. The Allies had suffered some 310,000 casualties, of whom some 38,000 were Australian, and the Germans lost about 270,000 men.

After a preliminary battle at Messines, Australians took part in five major battles during the campaign. Often referred to as Passchendaele, the objective of the Australians' final battle, the campaign is also known as 'the Third Battle of Ypres.' The difficulty of pronouncing the name Ypres led many in the British armies to refer to the town and the campaign as 'Wipers'.

On Friday, 16 November, 1917,The Age newspaper recorded his death: Killed in action in France on 4 October, Arthur M. Henry, dearly loved son of Mrs. Veal and the late Charles Henry of Geelong.

His name is recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial: Henry, Sergeant A.M. 208, 24th Battalion, son of Lily Veal, and of the late Charles Henry, native of Geelong