Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War II (1939-1945)
- Date of Enlistment
- 14/07/1942
- Date of Discharge
- 03/01/1946
- Place of Enlistment
- Port Moresby, Papua
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 12/03/1918
- Place of Birth
- Uralla NSW
- Address (at enlistment)
- Girrahween Street, Braddon ACT
- Occupation
- Public servant
- Next of Kin
- Patrick Bourke (father), Homer Street, Undercliffe NSW
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- NX113240 (N42972)
- Final Rank
- Corporal
- Final Unit
- 2/3 Australian Infantry Battalion
Notes
Harry Bourke arrived in Canberra in the early 1930s to work as a messenger in the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. He joined the 3rd Battalion militia on 24 November 1934, ultimately achieving the rank of Warrant Officer II by the time he enlisted in the AIF. He was mobilised when war broke out and arrived in Port Moresby with 3 Battalion in May 1942.
Bourke enlisted in the AIF on 1 July 1942 whilst remaining with 3 Battalion. On 5 September 1942 he was detached to Maroubra Force and sent along the Kokoda Track to face the advancing Japanese. The Australians forced the Japanese to retreat back over the Owen Stanley Ranges and by the end of the year had all but defeated them at their beach head on the northern coast of Papua.
Bourke returned to Australia in January 1943 and almost immediately got married. He transferred to the 2/3 Battalion (an AIF unit) in July 1943, but was reduced to the rank of corporal and then to private on his own request. He served with them in the campaign against the Japanese in the Wewak/ Aitape region of northern New Guinea from December 1944 until the end of the war by which time he had been promoted to corporal. He and his wife Kath lived in Narrabundah after the war. Bourke died on Good Friday, 24 March 1989, just days after Kath was named the 1989 Canberran of the Year. He is buried in Gungahlin Cemetery.
Description - height 5 feet 8½ inches, weight 130 pounds, hazel eyes, dark complexion, black hair, Catholic.
Sources
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Canberra Public Cemeteries http://www.canberracemeteries.com.au/grave-search/Index/
The Canberra Times - 12 March 1989, 27 March 1989
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883 (Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947)