Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/12/1915

Place of Enlistment

Cootamundra NSW

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Hillston NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Queanbeyan NSW (previously Canberra ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Son of Henry Kitson and Emily Kitson (deceased). Brother of Vera Blundell (nee Kitson) of Illabo NSW.

Burial Place

Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension, Bailleul, France (II. B. 47)

Service Number

5712

Final Rank

Driver

Final Unit

2 Battalion AIF

Died of wounds at 2nd Casualty Clearing Station, Belgium

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 33, Canberra ACT
Hillston War Memorial

The Kitson family arrived in Canberra around 1911. Vera Kitson married Lyle Blundell at the Canberra Presbyterian Church in 1912 and Henry Kitson worked for the Commonwealth. Jack Kitson was farewelled at Queanbeyan in April 1916 and served with the 2nd Battalion in France and Belgium. On 13 March 1918 he was in the Transport Section, 2nd Battalion when, after breakfast, whilst grooming horses in the stables near Mount Kemmel in Belgium, a long range bomb dropped on the building killing three men and 24 horses and mortally wounding Kitson. He was taken to the 2nd Casualty Clearing Station where he died on 18 March 1918. Kitson was buried in Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension near Bailleul, France.

His personal belongings were lost at sea when the S.S. Barunga was sunk by a German submarine. His nephew, Harold Blundell, served in World War 2.

Description - height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 154 pounds, chest 36¼ inches, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair, Catholic.

Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Queanbeyan Age - 14 April 1916, 12 April 1918
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Image provided by Mrs. Vera Strickland (niece)