BROWNSMITH, Sydney Harold

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Commemoration
  5. Notes
  6. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Army
Conflict
World War I (1914-1918)
Date of Enlistment
24/01/1916
Date of Discharge
14/08/1919
Place of Enlistment
Sydney NSW

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Place of Birth
Queanbeyan NSW
Address (at enlistment)
Waratah NSW (previously Tuggeranong ACT)
School(s) Attended
Tuggranong (Tuggeranong) School
Occupation
Telegraphist
Next of Kin
Eliza Brownsmith (mother), Station Street, Waratah NSW

Unit and Rank Details

Service Number
10532
Final Rank
Sergeant
Final Unit
3 Division Signal Company AIF

Commemoration

Roll of Honor Queanbeyan Public School, Isabella Street, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW (as F Brown-Smith)

Notes

Brownsmith's father worked on the railways and they lived in the Tuggeranong area from about 1892 to 1905. Brownsmith became a telegraph messenger at the Queanbeyan Post Office and was farewelled in 1906 when he was posted to Parramatta. He enlisted with the 3rd Division Signal Company and served in France from November 1916. He was wounded (shot in the arm) during the Battle of Messines in June 1917 and sent to England to recover. He returned to the Western Front in September 1917 and was promoted to Sergeant in October 1918. He returned to Australia in August 1919. The AWM photo shows Brownsmith with four other despatch riders with the 3rd Divisional Signal Company at Foucaucourt in France in January 1919. One of them is holding a sign saying 'Undesirables'.

Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, weight 179 pounds, chest 38-40 inches, fair complexion, dark blue eyes, red hair, Methodist.

Sources

John Cope, 'If only these stones could speak: a history of Queanbeyan Public School 1864-2001', 2001
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Tuggeranong School Punishment Book (Tuggeranong School House, Chisholm)
Queanbeyan Age - 11 July 1905, 18 April 1908
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Collections Record : Photograph C04827

Create Certificate
Sydney Brownsmith (back row, left) at Foucaucourt, France in 1919. AWM image C04827.

Sydney Brownsmith (back row, left) at Foucaucourt, France in 1919. AWM image C04827.

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