Albert Charles Andersen

Albert was the eldest child of Thowald and Selina (née Elliot) Andersen, being born on the 28th of October, 1895, at Lavington, New South Wales. When Albert was eight, his mother and youngest sister, Selina May, both died, leaving Thowald with three children under seven to raise. At some time between 1903 and 1905 he married Mary-Anne O’Connor and they would go on to have two more sons, Frederick in 1905 and Victor in 1911.

Tragedy further struck the family on the 11th of November, 1916, when Thowald, Albert’s youngest full brother, died of wounds recieved at the battle of Gueudecourt, in northern France. 

On the 12th of July, 1918, Albert enlisted in the 1st AIF. He was allocated the Regimental Number 60326 and placed in the 16th General Service Reinforcements. He was nearly 23 at the time and working as a farm labourer in the Lavington district.

On the 4th of September he embarked for active service on the HT A41 Bakara at Sydney. A little undersix weeks into the voyage, Albert was admitted to the ship’s hospital suffering with pnemonia. He died of heart failure on the 19th of October and was buried at sea three days later.

According to a cable sent at Sierra Leone on the 24th of October by the ship to the Officer in Charge, Base Records, Albert was one of four Australian soldiers to die of heart failure, most likely brought on by pneumonia, between the 12th and 19th of October. The other three soldiers were Acting Corporal O.G. Gunn (60219), Acting Corporal C. Percy (60272) and Private J.H. Ransome (60326).

He has no known grave but is remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, the Baranduda State School Honour Roll, the Albury War Memorial and the Hollybrook Memorial at Southampton in England. For his service he was awarded the British War Medal.