Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 22/05/1916
- Place of Enlistment
- Queanbeyan NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Place of Birth
- Queanbeyan NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Oaks Estate ACT
- School(s) Attended
- Queanbeyan Public School, Monaro Grammar School (Cooma NSW)
- Occupation
- Bank clerk
- Next of Kin
- Son of Arthur William and Nora Marian Moriarty of Oaks Estate ACT.
- Burial Place
26 Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 2941B
- Final Rank
- Private
- Final Unit
- 19 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died (killed in action) at Bullecourt, France on 3 May 1917 aged 19 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 89, Canberra ACT
Monaro Grammar School Honour Roll (at Canberra Grammar School)
Queanbeyan Public School Roll of Honour, Isabella St, Queanbeyan NSW
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Notes
Moriarty's father, Arthur was the land valuer for the Commonwealth and lived at Oaks Estate while Moriarty was working as a bank clerk with the Bank of NSW at Yass. He served with the 56th Battalion from February 1917 and the 19th Battalion (2 Platoon, A Company) from March 1917, where he was involved in repulsing a German attack on Lagnicourt, France. He was reported missing in action on 3 May 1917 during the Second Battle of Bullecourt in France. A court of enquiry later determined that he was killed on that day - his body was never recovered. According to a witness he was killed by a shell shortly after "hopping-over" at 5.30am. Moriarty is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. He was distantly related to Major-General Sir William Bridges.
Description - height 5 feet 10½ inches, weight 164 pounds, chest 32-36 inches, fair complexion, blue grey eyes, very fair hair, Church of England.
Sources
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM Red Cross file
AWM First World War Nominal Roll
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Karen Williams, 'Oaks Estate: No Man's Land', Canberra, 1997 (p. 151)
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Queanbeyan Age - 15 June 1917, 4 December 1917, 15 January 1918
Sydney Mail - 20 June 1917
Image courtesy of Pamela Hunt, Canberra Grammar School archives
Bank of New South Wales Roll of Honour Book (1921)
Harry Moriarty. Sourced from the Bank of New South Wales Roll of Honour Book (1921).
Harry Moriarty, the youngest man on the ACT Memorial to die in WW1. Image courtesy of Pamela Hunt, Canberra Grammar School archives.