Albert Hector EDWARDS
Trained with the 14th Depot Battalion before embarking from Melbourne, on the Nestor, on October 11th
Service Number = 3273
Date of Death = 23 November 1935
Rank = Private
Unit = 46th Battalion
Age = 41
Location = Ballarat New Cemetery, Methodist E, Section 3, Row 2, Grave 12
Albert Hector EDWARDS (SN 3273) was from York Street in Ballarat and enlisted in Ballarat on July 10th 1915. He was a 20 year old boilermaker. He trained with the 14th Depot Battalion before embarking from Melbourne, on the Nestor, on October 11th. While in Egypt he was attached to the 46th Battalion with whom he moved to France in March 1916. On September 2nd he was wounded in action, shell shock, but was able to rejoin his battalion the following day. His service record notes that at this time he was also suffering from ‘exhaustion’ which might explain the series of absent without leave charges that followed. In mid-1916 he was hospitalised ‘sick’ and subsequently withdrawn to England suffering from rheumatism. It was not until October 1917 that he rejoined his battalion in France. On September 3rd 1918 he was wounded in action for a second time, gassed, and evacuated to hospital in England where he saw out the remaining weeks of the war. He returned home on the Orontes, disembarking on January 30th 1919. He died on November 23rd 1935 at the age of 41.