Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 15/09/1916
- Date of Discharge
- 17/06/1919
- Place of Enlistment
- Sydney NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Other Name(s)
- Known as 'Jack'
- Place of Birth
- Wallaroo NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Sydney NSW (previously Bedellick via Hall ACT)
- School(s) Attended
- Ginninderra School (Nicholls ACT)
- Occupation
- Labourer
- Next of Kin
- James Rolfe (father), Bedellick via Hall ACT
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 2972
- Final Rank
- Signaller
- Final Unit
- 59 Battalion AIF
Commemoration
Hall Memorial Grove, Victoria Street, Hall ACT
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Notes
Jack Rolfe grew up at Bedellick near Hall and records show he was confirmed at St. Francis' Catholic Church at Ginninderra in 1901 and went to school at Ginninderra. He embarked in November 1916 as a Private with the 7th reinforcements to the 59th Battalion. Rolfe joined his unit in Belgium in September 1917, serving at Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. In March 1918 he was hospitalised with trench fever and trench feet and transferred to England for treatment. Rolfe attended the 5th Division Signal School at Codford during June and returned to Australia the following March 1919. He was discharged on 17 June 1919. Rolfe married Thelma McCracken in Sydney in 1925 and they had a son and two daughters. He died on 20 March 1951 in Katoomba and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Rookwood in Sydney.
Description - height 5 feet 11 inches, weight 150 pounds, chest 33-36 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, fair hair, going bald, Catholic, patches of leucademina over lower abdomen and back.
Sources
James A. Rochford, 'A History of the Catholic Churches of Ginninderra and Hall', 1985
Lyall Gillespie, 'Ginninderra - Forerunner to Canberra', 1992
Peter Procter, 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan', Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Canberra Historical Journal (Sept. 1983), photograph of students at Ginninderra School, 1895
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 27 June 1919
Sydney Morning Herald - 22 March 1951