Nicholls, Henry Stephen

740 Private Henry Stephen Nicholls - 16th Battalion

Henry Stephen Nicholls was born in Ballarat Victoria in 1880 to George and Eliza Nicholls. He was educated in Victoria but later moved with his family to Western Australia where they took up residence in Fremantle.

Henry worked as a sawyer in the south west and as a labourer in the Fremantle region. In 1911 he married he married Aurora Nelson in Beaconsfield and they had a son called Oscar, born in South Fremantle in 1912. Six other children would be born in the ensuing years.

With the outbreak of the Great War, Henry enlisted very early on and was assigned to the 11th Battalion. However he was medically discharged due to an abscess. However after medical treatment this was fixed and on the 11th November 1914 Henry again enlisted and was successful.

The medical examiner recorded Henry's details as;

Height - 5 feet 8 and 1/2 inches tall;

Weight - 160lbs;

Chest Measurement - 34-36 Inches;

Complexion - Dark;

Eyes - Brown;

Hair - Dark Brown.

After his successful enlistment, Henry was assigned to the newly forming 16th Battalion. He soon departed with them from Fremantle for Victoria where the 16th Battalion formed up with the rest of the 4th Brigade. From Melbourne they would soon embark for Egypt.

The 16th Battalion would land at Gallipoli on the last afternoon of April 25th. Henry seems to have survived the first few months of the campaign unscathed but there were reports he was wounded on the 26th July 1915 but other reports also state that he was discovered to have epilepsy and so was invalided home to Western Australia.

Henry Nicholls was discharged from the AIF in 1916. After he had arrived back home in Fremantle he had a photo taken with his brother Joshua who was about to depart Fremantle with the 44th battalion. (Henry is seated while Joshua is standing in the photo). Unfortunately Joshua would be killed in action in France at Sailly le Sec in March 1918.

Henry and his family took up residence in Ada Street South Fremantle.

Despite his epilepsy, Henry took up work as a conductor with Fremantle Tramways. In March 1925 while leaning out from his tram collecting fares which was on the corner of High and Adelaide Street, his head was struck by a motor vehicle or tram coming in the other direction. He fell unconscious and was taken to Fremantle Hospital where he later died. 

It was reported that the funeral procession moved from the Davies Funeral home in Market Street to Fremantle Cemetery.

Henry was buried at Fremantle Cemetery, and two of his pall bearers were fellow Fremantle returned soldiers, Harry Welshman DCM and James Cruthers MM. Henry was survived by his wife and seven children, Florrie, Oscar, Fred, Stanley, Kevin, Malcolm and Edward.

Henry's son's would go on to serve in World War Two, and Malcolm would be one the sailors killed when HMAS Sydney was sunk with all hands in November 1941.