HAYNES, Joshua Harold

Joshua was one of several children born to William and Caroline Haynes who lived at Rocky Glen, Wellingrove NSW. He may have been working in the Ashford district when in August 1915, at the age of twenty-one, he enlisted at Armidale and became a member of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Reinforcement which sailed from Australia for Egypt on RMS Osterley in January 1916. Four months later he was sent to France. During 1917 he was wounded in action and sent to England for treatment at 3rd Southern General Hospital. He returned to his unit in France in October where just two weeks later he received a gunshot wound to his back and had to be sent back to hospital in England. Joshua returned to Australia in June 1918, was medically discharged the following month, and granted a pension of sixty shillings per fortnight. He was given a ‘Welcome Home’ at the Dumaresq Hall and presented with an illuminated address.

He married at Glen Innes in 1922 and during the 1930s, lived in Sydney before moving to Taree. He died in 1967 at Concord NSW.

Joshua is likely to be the J Haynes whose name is recorded on the Ashford Honor Roll.