Private Harold Egbert Strongman
- Rank
- Private
- Service number
- 7790
- Unit
- 11 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action
- Place of death
- Hargicourt, France
- Date of death
- 18 September 1918
- Age
- 35
- Plaque number
- M342A
- Co-located plaques
- M342 - LT John Archibald
- Dedicated by
- Family on 18 February 2017
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Private Harold Egbert Strongman of 11 Battalion was born in September 1882 at Inkerman South Australia to James and Emily Strongman.
He attended South Inkerman state school and by all accounts was well educated.
The family moved to Western Australia sometime in the 1890s and settled in the Norseman area where Harold worked as a miner from 1910 to 1917 before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force.
Harold was rejected the first time he tried to enlist because of a recent hernia operation. He then reapplied and was successful in March 1917.
He served with the rifle corps from April to May 1917 and was then allotted to 26 Reinforcements of 11 Battalion.
Harold embarked at Fremantle on board HMAT Borda in June 1917 and disembarked at Plymouth in August.
They trained with 3 Training Battalion and then proceeded to France in January 1918.
He was taken on strength from 26 Reinforcements to 11 Battalion in February.
Harold was wounded in the face by shell fragments whilst the battalion was in the line in the Strazeele Sector in July 1918 and was evacuated to Boulogne to recover, re-joining his unit the following month.
Throughout September 1918, Australian forces had helped the British army to secure positions from which an attack on the Hindenburg Line could be launched.
Planning began for a major attack at the end of the month and it was hoped that this attack would finally break the power of the German army.
Private Harold Egbert Strongman, service number 7790, was killed in action during the Anzacs' attack on the Hindenburg outpost line near Haricourt 18th September 1918. He was 35 years of age.
He is interred at Jeancourt Communal Cemetery France.