Like many Australian men at the time, John Henry answered the call to arms to help the Empire.

They enlisted to serve in the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) to join the Empire in the battle of the Dardanelles.

John Henry joined the AIF at 31 years of age and he traded his job as a farm hand in Korumburra, rural Victoria, for one where tools of agriculture were exchanged for tools of warfare.

He was assigned to F Company of the 14th Battalion, AIF. as his Attestation Paper illustrates.

Like many Australian men, John Henry saw the War as an adventure. He could see the world and go to places that seemed impossible for a country lad from Korumburra. 

He was enticed by the idea of seeing far away places illustrated at the time through idyllic postacrds such as the one below of a typical Egyptian fishing harbour in 1914.

After enlistment, John Henry was posted with the 14th Battalion at Broadmeadows, then on the outskirts of Melbourne, where he did his basic training.

The film shows enlistees marching into camp. Uniforms, personal equipment and rifles are issued. they're seen washing clothing and setting up tents. Machine gunners set up Vickers guns. Gunners train with 18 pounder field guns. Farriers shoe horses. Artillery horses being trained. Horse lines during feeding time. Buglers play. Light horse form up. Artillery parade.

The Battalion embarked on the “HMAT 38 Ulysses”. They boarded at 4.30pm and sailed at 8pm amongst a throng of well-wishers.

The Second Anzac Fleet arrive in Albany, Western Australia They disembark for a few days as the ship readies itself for the onward journey and further troops embark.

They sail onwards from Albany on New Years Eve 1914 as they headed into 1915 in a far away land. Many men would never see Australian land again.

The fleet reached Colombo, on the British colony Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) at 8am on 13 January 1915 to refuel and to take on further supplies.

After negotiating the Suez Canal the Battalion disembarked at Alexandria on 31st January 1915 and then marched to Aerodrome camp, Heliopolis (north-east of modern-day Cairo)

The AIF trained in Egypt for a 2 month period to prepare themselves for the upcoming battle.before moving to the Gallipoli invasion landing assembly off Lemnos. 

The Battalion leaves Aerodrome Camp and marches from Heliopolis to Helmia railway station ...where they take a train to Alexandria ready for embarkment on the SS Seang Chong and onwards to battle.

The Battalion, aboard the SS Seang Chong arrived at Mudros harbour on Lemnos Island to join the British fleet for staging. This will be the final port of call for the travel-weary troops.

The first wave of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) Troops leave Mudros harbour on Lemnos Island at 10am aboard a fleet of naval and merchant shipping carrying Allied forces.

The first landing in the Dardenelles by ANZAC troops was captured on this same day in this rare footage:

Transport moors off ANZAC Cove with a view of Cape Helles from the sea. This small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula became the focus for the ANZAC landings and the base for troops for the 8 month battle ahead.

At only 600m in length this unremarkable piece of land has become a central player in the Gallipoli campaign.

Troops established a beachhead here and used it as an enourmous supply dump and location for two field hospitals. Floating jetties allowed for the rapid re-supply of stores and the cove was always within 1km of the front-line.

John Henry lands at ANZAC Cove the day after the first landings at 10.30am local time. After nearly 5 months of training and travel he has finally found the adventure promised in the call from the Dardanelles. The reality is somewhat different.

John Henry and the rest of his comrades in the 14th Battalion move to Courtney's Post where their offensive begins. The terrain is rugged and the climb from the beach steep.

After 2 weeks of fighting, John Henry and the 14th Battalion were granted four days leave on Imbros Island. The short break rested battered legs and weary hearts but before long they were returning to battle.

After 5 weeks in the 1st Battalion Hospital at Heliopolis, John Henry was transferred to a Convalescent Camp at Helouan. The former Al Hayat Hotel was used as an Australian Convalescence Camp. His stay in Helouan was to be brief and John Henry's war was about to start over again.

After nearly 2 months recovering from his injuries in Egypt, John Henry embarked on the transport ship Scotia to return to battle in the Dardanelles where along with other troops in the 14th Battalion he occupied dugouts and trenches in what had become pretty grim conditions.

The battle-scarred landscape was becomming a maze of trehnches and encampments.

The 14th Battallion were involved in the Second Offensive on 6th August 1915 as Brtish forces landed at Suvla Bay, to be supported by ANZAC troops from the south.

The 14th Battalion fought in attacks upon Hill 971 and Hill 60 (Kaiajik Aghyl) as they attempted to overcome the stalemate that had emerged at both Anzac Cove and Helles in the South.

These attacks were unsuccessful. Hill 60 is depicted below in a hand-drawn map of the area.

John Henry was reported missing in action two days after the beginning of the second offensive.

The casualty form which had previously noted his injuries and periods in hospital and convalescene in Egypt now told a more harrowing tale... a report that was updated on 6th April 1916 to 'Killed in Action'.

A scene depicts the view over the trenches at Hill 60 where a dead man lies on one of the mounds of earth...

John Henry's personal geography continues after his death. Well after the end of his campaign in the Dardenelles and two days after his Casualty Form was updated to record he had been 'Killed in Action', reports from the Red Cross and his former friends and comrades formally established his demise. 

A report was received from Private P. M. Fyfe, Boort, Victoria on 8th April 1916.

A further report was received from his mate, Private C. F. Giddens of 54 Derby Street, Kew, Victoria on 19th April 1916. John Henry was reportedly killed at the top of Australian Gully, near Hill 50. Pte Gidden's report stated he was believed to have died on or about 14th August though official reports state the 8th.

The allies had been unsuccessful in taking the peninsula and the cost had been immense. Some 56,707 allied troops had died. A further 123,598 were injured and 7,654 were either missing or had been taken prisoner. The British sustained the heaviest losses but over 28,000 Australian and New Zealanad troops lost their lives on Gallipoli. As with every other casualty of the war, John henry's family survived back in Australia.

His family receives his personal belongings from the Australian Military at 251 Adderley Street, West Melbourne a year after his death and nearly 9 months after the evacuation of British and ANZAC forces ended the Gallipoli campaign.

His family places a memorial notice in the Melbourne newspaper, The Argus on 8th August 1917 reading: CARTWRIGHT – In loving memory of our dear brother John Henry Cartwright (missing, rep. killed) August 8, 1915. We are thinking of you today, dear Jack, Just as we saw you last. (Inserted by H. and G. Barrot, Colac.).

Lone Pine Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery dating from World War I in the former Anzac sector of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It is one of five memorials on the peninsula which commemorate servicemen of the former British Empire killed in the campaign but who have no known grave.

Margaret Taylor receives notification of the next-of-kin Anzac memorial Plaque for John Henry Cartwright (No. 308,244) at Lone Pine, Gallipoli, one of the 471 Australian trrops commerated.

Not until 10th May 1920 did John Henry's mother, Margaret Taylor of 87 Errol Street, North Melbourne., inform Army Base records that she is the next-of-kin to the late John Henry Cartwright.

Subsequently, she received the Star Medal and British War Medal on his behalf on 26th August 1920 and 25th July 1921 respectively.

John Henry's sister, Henrietta of Irrewillipe Road, Elliminyt, Victoria, applies for the ‘Anzac Medal’ - by letter in 1967. 

They saw the world and had adventures. From country Victoria in 1914 to eternity in Gallipoli, Turkey. Here he rests with comrades and remembered by family at the Korumburra Memorial, dedicated in 1922.

The Last Post

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam

Research and archive material:

Australian War Memorial

Mapping our Anzacs

Monument Australia

Museum Victoria

Archive research: William Cartwright AM

Map: Kenneth Field