Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

10/08/1915

Date of Discharge

30/08/1916

Place of Enlistment

Holsworthy NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

31/08/1891

Place of Birth

Aldershot, England

Address (at enlistment)

Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Alfred Sturt (father), London, England

Service Number

2829

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

20 Battalion AIF

Sturt was born in Aldershot, England and worked at the Royal Military College, Duntroon as a groom from November 1911 until he enlisted on 24 August 1915 at Holsworthy. He arrived in Egypt at the end of 1915 with reinforcements for the 20th Battalion when it was found that a pre-existing injury prevented him from using a rifle. He had broken and dislocated his elbow in 1895 in India while serving with a Territorial Howitzer Battery and had it operated on in 1909. Incredibly, Sturt had not used a rifle before embarkation and was sent back to Australia after his first rifle test, arriving in July 1916. Sturt was discharged on 30 August 1916 and is listed on the Territory's electoral roll for the conscription vote in October 1916. He is also shown as an employee at Duntroon until September 1917 but then moved to Sydney where he enlisted with the Army Medical Corps. He married Emily Johnson in Sydney in 1918 and served at the Liverpool Camp Field Hospital and at No.4 Australian General Hospital in Randwick before being discharged on as medically unfit on 16 May 1918. Sturt died on 19 August 1947 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.

Description - height 5 feet 8¾ inches, weight 156 pounds, dark complexion, hazel eyes, dark hair, Church of England.

Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Sydney Morning Herald - 20 August 1947