33rd BATTALION AIF
Private: 2381 James Aloysius SMITH.
Born: 1894. Hillgrove, New South Wales, Australia.
Died: 8th of June 1917. Killed in Action.
Father: Peter Smith.
Mother: Emily Smith.
INFORMATION
No.2381 James Aloysius SMITH was a 22 Miner from Torrington in NSW when he enlisted in the AIF on the 5th of May 1916.
He remained at the Armidale Depot Battalion until the 25th of August until he was allocated to the 4th Reinforcements.
He embarked from Australia aboard the HMAT (A30) ‘Borda’, as a member of the 4th Reinforcements to the 33rd Battalion. The Troopship departed Sydney on the 17th of October and arrived in Plymouth England on the 9th of January 1917. The Reinforcements then travelled by rail, via Exeter, to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
On the 12th of January 1917 he marched in to the 9th Training-Battalion at Durrington in Wiltshire.
On the 13th of March 1917 he deployed from England across to France, marching in to the 3rd Australian Division Base Depot on arrival.
On the 17th of March he marched out to the front and was taken-on-strength by the 33rd Battalion, two days later in the L’Epinette Sector. He was 1 of a group of 43 Reinforcements to arrive that day and was 1 of 11 posted into “A” Company.
was with the 33rd Battalion for the attack on the ‘Messines and Wystchaete Ridges’ on the 7th of June, which began at 3:10 a.m. when 19 huge mines were detonated under key German positions along the ridge…..four of them being to the front of the 9th Brigade. The 33rd Battalion quickly seized all of its objectives and commenced consolidating their new positions.
On the 8th of June 1917, in the new trenches, he was KILLED-IN-ACTION. He was buried in the Toronto Avenue Military Cemetery. Plot 1 Row A.12
Toronto Avenue Cemetery
Toronto Avenue Cemetery are the graves of 78 World War I soldiers, all of them Australians, two of them unidentified. They stand in three rows, most of them joined together signifying that this is a mass grave. This is the only all Australian Cemetery in Belgium and the only one on the Western Front with headstones identifying those who lie here.
Torrington NSW Roll of Honour
(Bill Durant: June 2019)
Military Records
© Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia)
Under Construction: 02/06/2019-20/06/2019.