Hair, Alexander William (7228)
Place of Birth: Port Melbourne, VIC
Age: 37 years 2 months
Enlistment Details: Wednesday, 29 December 1915 – Melbourne, VIC
Service Number: 7228 view online service record
Address:
134 Buckhurst Street
South Melbourne, VIC
Next of Kin:
Millicent Alice Hair (wife)
134 Buckhurst Street
South Melbourne, VIC
Embarkation Details:
Date: Friday, 31 March 1916
Ship: HMAT Star of Victoria A16
Port: Sydney, NSW
Unit: 5th Field Company Engineers – 5th Reinforcements
Fate:
KIA: Thursday, 3 May 1917
Place: France
Sapper, 5 Field Engineers, killed in action 3 May, 1917, France, aged 39, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.
Wife: Mrs Millicent Alice HAIR, born Port Melbourne. He enlisted from 134 Buckhurst Street, South Melbourne as a 37 year-old labourer (Dunlop Rubber Company), wife as next of kin. No known grave, eyewitness reports suggest he and three others entered a tunnel under heavy shell fire with the intention of blowing it up, but only one of the four re-emerged after the tunnel collapsed. Noted as enlisting December, 1915, previously rejected.
Additional research by Brian Membrey
1917 ‘ITEMS OF NEWS.’, Port Melbourne Standard (Vic. : 1914 – 1920), 7 July, p. 2. , viewed 04 Aug 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88369224
2 Comments
Brian Membrey
Parents : Alexander John and Mary Anne HAIR (nee KERNICK), Little Princes-street, Sandridge around the time of his birth
Brian Membrey
“He was in the 5th Field Company not in the 3rd, and was killed in the hop-over at Bullecourt by shell fire. I did not see this myself, but Sergt. B. Godwin of the 5th would give all the information as I did not know any more details. I was there at time he was killed: (G. W. Murphy, 7236, 5th Field Company Engineers)