JOHANNSEN, Henry Niemen

Henry (Harry) Neimen Johannsen was the second son of John and Mary Anne Johannsen and one of a large family of eleven children.  He was born in Allendale in c. 1889.  At the time he enlisted on 6 October 1916 he gave his occupation as a tailor.  According to newspaper reports he had been working at the firm of Lyons and White in Ballarat.  Yet he gave 84 Powlett Street, East Melbourne as his postal address.  Perhaps he came to the city especially to enlist.  He was assigned to the 8th Infantry Battalion, 23rd Reinforcements as a Private and sent to the Signal School in Seymour for training.

He embarked on HMAT Hororata on 23 November 1916 and disembarked at Plymouth on 29 January 1917 and appointed to the 2nd Training Battalion.  He was sent to France on 29 May 1917 where he was taken on strength of the 37th Battalion from the 8th.  He would have seen action at the Battle of Messines, 7-9 June, and again at the Battles of Broodseinde on 4 October and Passchendaele on 12 October.  The unit remained in Belgium for the next five months but was rushed south in late March to meet the German Army’s Spring Offensive. He was wounded in action (gassed) on 26 May 1918 and was discharged from hospital on 2 June.  On 12 October 1918 he was transferred to the 39th Battalion. According to the Australian War Memorial’s Unit History, 

In September 1918 several battalions were ordered to disband to provide reinforcements for others. The 37th was one such battalion. Its CO, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Story, was dismissed for questioning the order in letters written to all of his superior commanders, including the Prime Minister. The men of the battalion subsequently mutinied. On 23 September the order to disband was temporarily suspended, and the battalion fought its last battle - St Quentin Canal - six days later. On 12 October 1918 the 37th Battalion, then with a fighting strength of 90, disbanded. 

Harry returned to Australia on the Wiltshire leaving England on 4 July 1919 and was discharged on 26 September 1919.

After the war he settled in Malvern where he resumed his work as a tailor with a workshop in Station Street

He died on 24 July 1939, aged 50, as a result of a dreadful accident when the bicycle he was riding collided with a car on the corner of Union Street and Glenferrie Road, Malvern. He was survived by his wife, Florence May, and three children

He is remembered in the Avenue of Honor at Creswick where his tree is No 44.  His brother, Norman, also fought in the war and died in action.