VX71543

2/12th Infantry Battalion

Leongatha 12 February 1919

Ellen Butterworth, his wife.

9 January1942 Caulfield

Leongatha

Labourer

12 January 1943 New Guinea

His name is on the Port Moresby Memorial, Leongatha Memorial and at the Leongatha High School

Harry was born in Leongatha and grew up on a property in Brown Street with his three older sisters. He attended Leongatha State School and Leongatha High School in the early 1930's

At the time of his enlistment into the army in 1942, he was recorded as a labourer of Leongatha.

Harry trained at various locations in Australia before his battalion was sent to New Guinea in 1942. They went first to Milne Bay and then on to Buna and Sanananda. The 2/12th fought in difficult country and suffered heavy losses. Their efforts to clear the Japanese from the tortuous swamp country around Sanananda cost 61 lives between the 9 and 21 of January 1943. Sadly, Harry was one of them. He was killed in action on the 12 January 1943 aged 23.

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