Private Jack Yarrow, 60th Australian Infantry Battalion
Australian War MemorialJack Yarrow was born in 1897 in Eaglehawk, Victoria. He was the only son born to William James Yarrow, a shearer, and his wife Annie. Jack attended the local Catholic School, where he was an active member of the cadets. After he left school, he continued serving in the Militia, before going to work for the Leggo chemical company’s Pyrites Works in California Gully. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Jack was working as a burner, a gold mining process.
Jack Yarrow enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 13 July 1915. He was assigned to reinforcement of the 21st Infantry Battalion and began training. On 29 December, Private Yarrow embarked for active service on the troopship Demosthenes.
Yarrow arrived in Egypt, where he joined a mix of recruits and veterans from the Gallipoli campaign. In late February 1916, during an expansion of the AIF, Yarrow was transferred to the newly-formed 60th Battalion. He continued training until March, when he was sent to hospital with influenza. This illness would be the first in a long line of ailments that plagued Jack Yarrow.
He re-joined his unit in mid-March, and they embarked for service on the Western Front three months later. From the French port of Marseilles they were sent north to the border of France and Belgium, which had once been the site of bitter fighting. Now comparatively quiet, this area became known as the ”nursery sector” where new troops were introduced to life in the trenches.
Yarrow was soon drawn into his first major battle, when his unit attacked enemy positions near the village of Fromelles on 19 July. Yarrow survived the assault, but it resulted in more than 5,500 Australian casualties. The 60th Battalion itself was virtually wiped out, with 757 casualties. As a result of these staggering losses, Yarrow and his remaining comrades saw little offensive action for the rest of the year. At the end of 1916, Yarrow was in and out of hospital, with a range of health problems.
Yarrow’s unit saw out the bitterly cold winter at the front. In early 1917, he and his comrades were drawn into the advance which followed the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. They participated in few major clashes with the enemy, but did help to defend gains made during the second battle of Bullecourt.
Following this stint in the trenches, Yarrow was granted leave in England. He returned to the front in early June, and was sent to an infantry school to train as a Batman. Two months later, Yarrow returned to his unit behind the lines, before making their way to the trenches of Belgium in mid-September.
Yarrow and his comrades were soon in the front lines, preparing for an attack at Polygon Wood. By the eve of the battle, the men of the 60th Battalion were called forward to support the front line and dug in on the outskirts of Glencorse Wood. As they waited for nightfall, the enemy began shelling their position, quickly causing casualties before the main attack had even begun. A piece of shell struck Yarrow and his comrades immediately went to his aid, but the hit had proved fatal: he was already dead.
One of his comrades wrote to Yarrow’s mother:
“We were moving up to the front line when a German shell burst nearby and killed poor Jack instantly… Jack was acting as company runner at the time of his death, which is a most trustworthy position and was very nobly carried out by him … I had the highest regard for his good qualities and I feel the loss of such a true and noble pal very keenly. It may comfort you to know that dear Jack did not suffer any pain and fell doing his duty bravely. I trust that God will give you strength to bear up under your great sorrow.”
Yarrow’s final resting place was never located. Today, he is commemorated among the missing on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, in Belgium.
Private Jack Yarrow was 21 years old.
- Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R1679362
