Alfred Henry Jose 1305

SAPPER ALFRED HENRY JOSE 1305 - 3rd Tunnelling Company

Alfred Jose was born at Sandhurst, Victoria in 1871. A miner by trade, he married Sarah Ann Brockley in 1893 at Bendigo, Victoria. By the time he enlisted at Blackboy Hill, Western Australia, on 28 March 1916, Alfred was a widower, and named his 13-year-old son, Alfred Arthur Jose, of Comet Vale, WA, as his Next of Kin. He allotted 4/5ths of his pay to his son, c/o Mrs F Jones of Comet Vale.

Alfred was 5ft 8in tall, weighed 175lbs, was of fair complexion with blue eyes, and was bald. He embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 1 April 1916, with No. 3 Company of the Australian Mining Corps, arriving in France in May of that year.

Alfred was transferred to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company on 18 December 1916, which had been formed from the dis-banded Australian Mining Corps. He would have worked with the Company at Wytschaete, been involved in the Battle of Fromelles, and was probably working in the Black Watch Sap at Hill 70 when 20 of his comrades were killed by an enemy camouflet on 27 November 1916.

The bitter Northern winter affected Alfred and he was admitted to the 73rd Field Ambulance with bronchitis on 5 April 1917. He was transferred to England on 9 April, and admitted to Connaught Hospital, Aldershot, for treatment before being moved to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, for recovery.

On 22 May he was well enough to be sent to No. 2 Command Depot at Weymouth where it was decided that that his age and health made him unsuitable for further deployments to active service. Alfred returned to Australia on board HMAT A14 Euripides, departing England 21 May and arriving 12 September 1917.

Alfred was discharged on 28 September, and granted a pension for himself and his dependant son on 29 September 1917.

Alfred died 31 August 1926 and is buried in the Kalgoorlie Cemetery, Western Australia, his grave marked by a grateful Nation. Photo courtesy Moya Sharp - Kalgoorlie Alfreds’ wife, Sarah Ann, was the sister of John Brockley, also of Bendigo. 2371 Sapper John Robert Brockley enlisted into the Mining Corps at Blackboy Hill, and also served with the 3rd Tunnelling Coy. He was killed in action on 27th November 1916. Alfred Jose forwarded his brother-in-laws’ personal effects to his sister, Elizabeth, in Bendigo.