Stone , John Edward

On 4 February 1915 at Wangaratta, Victoria, a man calling himself John Edward Stone signed up to join the Australian army. He described himself as born in East Melbourne, a storeman by occupation, aged 25 and eleven months and with military experience through School Cadets. He weas 5'9", a good height for the time and exhibited leadership qualities from the beginning of his army career. He described himself as a single man and gave as his Next of Kin a Mr Matthew Hogan of A.G. Tramway Company in Auckland, New Zealand.

John Stone joined the 21st Battalion, raised as part of the 6th Brigade in February 1915. They trained at Broadmeadows, then embarked for Egypt on 10 May, 1915, on board H.M.A.T. Ulysses A38, disembarking at Mudros on 11 November, 1915, for further training. Then, as part of the newly raised 2nd Division, they proceeded to Gallipoli in late August 1915. Their transport ship was torpedoed by a submarine, so they took logner to get to the Peninsula. Here John Stone was promoted to Sergeant (Provisional) on 23 August and to 2nd Lieutenant on 19 November. The last major Allied offensive on the Gallipoli Peninsula had been defeated in August, so the 25th Battalion had a fairly quiet time, before being evacuated to Egypt in December, 1915.

The 25th Battalion arrived in France on 26 March, 1916, disembarking at Marseilles, before moving to the Western Front. John Stone/Harry Taylor was with the machine gun section.  He would have been fighting at Pozieres and at Mouquet Farm, where he was killed in action on approximately 3 August, 1916. He was buried in Plot 3, Row D, Grave 16, in the British Cemetery, Anzac Section, 3rd Echelon GHQ, Pozieres, Picardy, France

His death was duly acknowledged by the Base Records Office headed by Major James Lean. The office wrote to the next of kin Mr Matthew Hogan of Auckland, New Zealand, who sent back a detailed letter, saying that the man who described himself as Harry Taylor was, in fact, John Edward Stone, not of East Melbourne, but from Sydney, NSW.

The facts of the case are as follows, he wrote. Lieutenant J.E. 'Stone' enlisted under an assumed name. His real name was Harry Edwin Taylor and is a married man with a wife. He lived in Sydney and carried on a business with a young man by the name of Harold E. Gould, as electrical engineers. In January, 1915, during a lapse of memory, he wandered from home and later enlisted at Wangaratta and went into camp at Broadmeadows and eventuallt left for Egypt. His wife made all effort to trace him but without avail. I received several letters from him since he went on active service, also photos of himself, his section and the horse he rode. He informed me that he had been wounded slightly and also that he was on board the transport that was torpedoed en route to the Peninsular; that he was promoted to non-commisssioned rank of Sergeant, and later was granted a commission. Of course, this latter information was well known to you, but I mention these facts as proof that J.E. 'Stone' and H.E.Taylor are one and the same person.

Just prior to his death, he wrote that he had got a man leaving for England to send her a bank draft ... he had made a will in favour of his wife and a copy of this will would be found in his paybook.

So John Stone was not a single man, was not born in East Melbourne, and was not a Storeman, but was  Harry Taylor, married to Ethel Winifred Taylor, whom he had abandoned to go to the war. Mrs. Stone, in her turn, wanted recognition of herself as a war widow and as the recipient of Harry Taylor/ John Stone's medals and the commemorative scroll given to bereaved familties. However, she wanted them in the name of Harry Taylor, not in the name he was buried in, John Edward Stone. This request was difficult for Major Lean: war regulations were that the name a man died with was put on his grave marker and his medals. Mrs Taylor replied that it was impossible for her to explain to friends and family that John Stone was actually her husband Harry Taylor and returned his medals to the War Office. As the dispute went on, Harry Taylor's war record grew to over eighty four pages. In the end, new medals, the commemorative scroll and the grave marker were all corrected and, presumably, Mrs Winifred Taylor also got a war widow's pension.