Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 26/12/1915
- Date of Discharge
- 09/06/1919
- Place of Enlistment
- Goulburn NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Other Name(s)
- Also known as 'Leslie James Middlemus', also spelt 'Middlemuss'.
- Date of Birth
- 15/04/1895
- Place of Birth
- Tharwa ACT
- Address (at enlistment)
- 'Booroomba' via Tharwa ACT
- Occupation
- Station hand
- Next of Kin
- Mary Merritt (mother), Tharwa ACT
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 5410
- Final Rank
- Private
- Final Unit
- 53 Battalion AIF
Commemoration
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Notes
James Merritt was born Leslie James Middlemus in 1895 - Merritt was his stepfather's name. He came from Tharwa and was working at 'Booroomba' when he enlisted at Goulburn. He served with the 53rd Battalion in France from July 1916, fought at Flers, the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Polygon Wood and Passchendaele. Merritt was shot in the arm during the first battle at Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918 and gassed there two weeks later. He rejoined his unit in time for the attack on the Hindenberg Line at Bellicourt where he was wounded in the arm and thigh and developed erypsilas, a potentially fatal skin disease. Merritt returned to Australia in March 1919 and was discharged on 9 June 1919. He married in 1931, changed his name to Middlemus and lived in the Robertson district in the NSW Southern Highlands. He died there in 1956.
He is mentioned in a letter from Alex Gifford, his teacher at Tharwa, who was on the same ship from Australia to Egypt.
Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, 128 pounds, chest 34 inches, dark complexion, hazel eyes, black hair, Catholic, round scar on right leg.
Sources
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 28 March 1916
Queanbeyan/ Canberra Advocate - 9 November 1916
NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages - http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/search.htm