Gershun Harbert

Alias Gershom Harbett (1911 UK Census); Harbet (naturalisation); Gershen Harbut (Australian Jewry book of honour)
Born 12.02.1888
Place Warsaw, Poland
Ethnic origin Jewish
Religion Jewish
Arrived at Australia from London
on 9.07.1910
per Wilcannia
disembarked at Adelaide
Residence before enlistment Adelaide, Sydney
Occupation Tailor
Naturalisation 1913

Service #1

Service number 2173
Enlisted 13.05.1915
Place of enlistment Liverpool, NSW
Unit 4th Battalion, 56th Battalion, 59th Battalion
Rank Private
Place Gallipoli, 1915; Western Front, 1916
Final fate KIA 19.07.1916
Cemetery 7 V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery, France

Materials

Blog article

Russian

English

Newspaper articles

Recruiting humour. - Daily Standard, Brisbane, 19 June 1915, p. 4. (Most likely that tailor mentioned in the article is Gershun Harbert)

From Russian Anzacs in Australian History:

The three killed [at Sugar-loaf salient in July 1916] were Boris Soans from Estonia and Arthur John Savolainen from Finland, both former seamen, and Gershun Harbert, a Polish Jew. Harbert, a former tailor, had fallen sick on Gallipoli; then in Egypt, when his division made its infamous three-day march across the desert in full kit, he suffered heat-stroke. Despite his poor health he went to the Western Front, where he lasted only a few days. During the attack his 15th Brigade was in the worst position and had to cross the widest part of no-man's-land under the German tempest of fire. Harbert found his end somewhere there among its ditches and furrows. He was reported 'missing in action'. We shall never know what made him join the AIF, probably devotion to his new homeland. A human grain of sand, doing his bit ...

Gallery

Map