Constantine, Norman Alfred

29466 Corporal Norman Alfred Constantine - 118th Howitzer Brigade AIF

Norman Alfred Constantine was born in Wallaroo South Australia in 1884. He later came across to the Goldfields in WA and in Kalgoorlie in 1907 he married Amelia Ann Baxter.

Norm secured employment with Atlas Engineering in Fremantle and so Amelia and Norm moved to Fremantle and set up residence, firstly at Raleigh Avenue North Fremantle, then Wright Street in South Fremantle before ending up in Mary Street Beaconsfield. They would have five children over the next few years, Olive (1907), Charles (1909), Lawrence (1911), Arthur (1913) and Norma (1915). 

Unfortunately tragedy struck the family in 1915 as Amelia died in December at 268 Hampton Road South Fremantle. She had just given birth to Norma on the 20^th November so it's possible her death was a result of the birth. Unfortunately Norma died just few months old in 1916.

Perhaps to escape the tragedy of his wife's death, Norman enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force on the 30th December 1915. He was accepted as fit for service with the medical officer recording Norm's details as;

Height - 5 feet 9 & 1/2 inches tall;

Weight - 143lbs

Chest Measurement - 34-36 inches;

Complexion - Fresh;

Eyes - Blue'

Hair - Brown.

Norman was assigned to the Artillery reinforcements at Blackboy Hill Camp but Norm and others assigned to the Artillery were sent to Victoria to complete their training.

Norman was assigned to the reinforcements to the Howitzer Brigades. This group left port Melbourne on the transport ship HMAT Aeneas on the 3rd October 1916.

The journey to England took several weeks with the ship arriving at Plymouth Harbour on the 19th November 1916. After arriving in England the men were sent into the Australian Artillery Training Depot on the Salisbury Plains.

On the 8th January 1917 Norman was in a draft of reinforcements sent to France and was marched into the Artillery Base Depot at Etaples. He spent the next few months here but in June 1917 he reported sick and was sent to England to recover.

He was found to be suffering from otitis media of the ear and a dilated heart. On the 27th July 1917 Norman boarded the hospital ship Demosthenes and set sail for home. He arrived in Fremantle on the 18th September 1917.

Norm was sent to No.8 Australian General Hospital for a full medical checkup and on the 12th October 1917 was discharged from the AIF as medically unfit. He was able to secure a war pension due to his illness.

After his return the family was living at Wellington Street Cottesloe Beach. The family then moved to Bruce Rock and were living in Bunbury prior to the Second World War.

During World War Two, his son Lawrence died as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese in 1943.

Norman died on the 10th December 1953