Damaged wrist watch: Private Albert Amos Howes, 13 Battalion, AIF

Remains of a damaged silver wrist watch. The glass and hands are missing and many of the numbers on the face are worn. The frame for the glass is misshapen and is not attached to the watch. One bracket for the wrist band is broken off and the wrist band is absent. The inner workings of the watch are rusted and the silver back is broken off. Engraved on the outside of the back is 'TO / ALBERT / FROM / FATHER & MOTHER / OCT 1915'. On the inside are maker's marks and the following text lightly scratched into the watch '4204', '13 Batt / 4204'. Some further text is now illegible.

This watch was found on the body of 4204 Private Albert Amos Howes when it was discovered and exhumed in 1925. Howes' body was located at French 1:40,000 map reference 57d R28 c00. The service number and unit scratched into the watch together with the inscription from his parents on the back, which recorded Howes' first given name, allowed the authorities to identify his remains.

Albert Howes enlisted in the AIF in August 1915. He was 22 years old and working as a machinist. After training in Australia he embarked with the 13th reinforcements to the 13th Battalion on 20 December, aboard HMAT Aeneas. He trained further in Egypt, serving there until 1 June when he travelled with his unit to France.

On the night of 28/29 August 13th Battalion relieved 15th Battalion near Mouquet Farm. At some point on 29 August Howes, who was serving with 'A' Company on the left of the line, went missing. It may have happened during the day, when the battalion endured heavy shelling from their own artillery, or later that night during an attack on the German lines which began at 11pm. During the battle, 'A' Company went 36 metres out into no man's land, following up the artillery barrage, and met strong German opposition from machine gun and rifle fire and bombs. The company rushed and captured its first objective, but later had to withdraw.

It was not until a court of inquiry was held in January 1917 that Howes was formally noted as killed in action. His family tried a number of ways to find out what had happened to him but to no avail. The Red Cross received differing accounts from soldiers in his unit, including two soldiers that advised that Howes had been taken a prisoner of war. When Howes' body was finally recovered in 1925 it was reinterred in the AIF Burial Ground in Flers, France. This watch, which had confirmed his identity, was forwarded to his father, Arthur, in November 1925.