Ainsworth, Jack (1451)
Place of Birth: South Melbourne, VIC
Age: 21 years 6 months
Enlistment Details: Thursday, 19 November 1914 – Blackboy Hill, WA
Service Number: 1451 view online service record
Address:
Ajana
via Northampton, WA
Next of Kin:
Frances Ainsworth (mother)
Amana
via Northampton, WA
Embarkation Details:
Date: Monday, 22 February 1915
Ship: HMAT Itonus A50
Port: Fremantle, WA
Unit: 16th Infantry Battalion – 2nd Reinforcements
Fate:
KIA: Sunday, 2 May 1915
Place: Gallipoli Peninsula
Full name: Elias Megerney ‘Jack’ Ainsworth
Brother: Herbert James Ainsworth
Private, 16 Infantry, killed in action 2 May, 1915, Gallipoli, aged 22, commemorated Quinn’s Post Cemetery, Gallipoli.
Parents: William and Mrs Francis AINSWORTH, brother Herbert James AINSWORTH killed in action, 29 July 1916. Born South Melbourne, 208 Graham Street, raised Western Australia. Enlisted Western Australia and appears to have been defaulted to South Melbourne by AWM staff when no response was given to the question as to place of association on the circular. Herbert was born in Port Melbourne, but listed under a Western Australia district on the circular. AWM Roll of Honour suggests he was also known as Elias Edwin William AINSWORTH, a Death Notice from his mother in the Port Melbourne Standard has him as Elias Megerney AINSWORTH “loved grandson of the late Mrs SHORT, South Melbourne. Originally posted as Missing, declared killed in action at that date by a Court of Inquiry, April, 1916)
Additional research by Brian Membrey
1916 ‘”The Standard” at the Front.’, Port Melbourne Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1920), 18 March, p. 3. , viewed 28 Feb 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91168999
We get a glimpse into the Ainsworth family through this letter from Jack and Herbert’s father William published in the Standard newspaper on 29 April 1916.
1916 ‘Former Portonian Writes.’, Port Melbourne Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1920), 29 April, p. 4. , viewed 30 Mar 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91164145
1916 ‘KILLED IN ACTION.’, Port Melbourne Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1920), 3 June, p. 2. , viewed 02 May 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91166087
1 Comments
Lorraine Jeffrey
Jack Ainsworth was born Elias Edwin William MEGERNEY, Melbourne, about 1894, to Edwin Jno (sic) MEGERNEY and his wife, Frances Alice MEGERNEY (née Short).
His mother was widowed in 1895 and, in 1899, married William AINSWORTH, a widower with 6 children. Elias took the family name AINSWORTH and was known as JACK – the names under which he enlisted.
Around 1906, most of the family (which included 4 more children) moved to Western Australia initially living around Perth before taking up farming land at Ajana near Northampton.
Another 4 children were born in WA, the last being Herbert Jack Ainsworth (born 1917) who was named for his 2 brothers both killed in action.