Harold Gordon CRAIG
Harold Craig was born on 9 January 1884 in Hawthorn, Victoria. His parents were James and Mary Elizabeth (née Woodroffe) Craig. He attended Scotch from 1898 to 1899. He was a member of the Old Scotch Collegians Club on leaving school.
Harold was a clerk when he enlisted on 17 August 1914 at Richmond, Victoria. He served in the with the rank of Private. His Regimental Number was 416.
Harold died on 8 August 1915 on the Hospital Ship Dunluce Castle, off Gallipoli. He was 31 years of age.
Service record
H. Gordon Craig was one of the first to enlist. He landed with the 6th Battalion at Gallipoli on 25 April. He wrote a long letter to a friend which was reproduced in The Scotch Collegian (see extract below). As he mentioned there, he was wounded in the arm on 25 April 1915. He was evacuated from Gallipoli to the Heliopolis Hospital in Cairo and returned to his battalion on 17 June. He was wounded again, with a gunshot wound to the head, probably at Steele’s Post during an attack on German Officer’s Trench on 6 August.
He was initially reported missing, and his service file contains various eyewitness accounts of what happened to him. Two said he was hit in the face, including one who claimed to have seen ‘Craig hit in the mouth by a bullet.’ That soldier had the impression that Craig was not seriously wounded, but unfortunately he was wrong. Gordon received a comminuted fracture of the lower jaw (meaning his jaw was broken in several places). He died of wounds on the hospital ship Dunluce Castle. His obituary in the 1916 The Scotch Collegian says that a bomb burst caused the fatal wound, on 6-7 August.
Harold Craig was buried in the sea. He is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli.
Photographs and Documents:
From 1916 Collegian
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
- Mishura Scotch Database
- National Archives of Australia – B2455, CRAIG HG
- Scotch Collegian 1915 and 1916
- The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=65832
