Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 01/03/1915
- Place of Enlistment
- Liverpool NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 08/06/1897
- Place of Birth
- Braidwood NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Meadowbank NSW (previously Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT)
- School(s) Attended
- Mosman Superior Public School, Dubbo District School, Royal Military College
- Occupation
- Soldier
- Next of Kin
- Son of William and Mary Black of Meadowbank NSW
- Burial Place
Warlencourt British Cemetery, France; plot 4, row B, grave 1
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 488
- Final Rank
- Corporal
- Final Unit
- 17 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died at Warlencourt, France on 28 February 1917, aged 19 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 82, Canberra ACT
Notes
Black's father was a teacher and inspector with the Education Department. Black entered the Royal Military College at Duntroon on 12 March 1914 in the fourth intake of cadets. He left RMC to enlist in February 1915 in the 17th Battalion. He arrived on Gallipoli as a Sergeant in B Company of the 17th Battalion in August 1915. On 22 August they attacked Hill 60, to the north of Anzac Cove, as part of the final (unsuccessful) attempt to break the deadlock between the Turks and the British forces on Gallipoli. Thereafter, until the evacuation in December 1915, the 17th Battalion manned Quinns Post.
In March 1916 Black and his unit were sent to France where he found himself charged with insubordination and demoted to the rank of Private. By September 1916 he was a Corporal and his battalion were about to be sent to the Flers sector on the Somme where they spent the winter. In February 1917 the 2nd Division of the AIF (which included the 17th Battalion) attacked German positions near Warlencourt to the south of Bapaume. Black was killed in action during the assault on Malt Trench on 28 February 1917.
Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, weight 157 pounds, chest 32-35½ inches, dark complexion, grey eyes, dark hair, Presbyterian.
Sources
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)