Hitchcock, Lawrence Gould (Staff Sergeant, b.1894 - d.1973)

Collection relating to the First World service of (service number 3) Staff Sergeant Lawrence Gould Hitchcock, 41st Infantry Battalion AIF, France,1916.

The collection consists of small autograph book with soldiers' signatures, photographs and sketches made during the First World War. The diary includes two pages of signatures of the entertainers called 'Anzac Coves', from Rouen, 4 August 1918. Most pages include small neat illustrations of colour patches, buildings and cartoons.
Staff Sergeant Hitchcock enlisted at Townsville on 18 October 1915 aged 21. Hitchcock was born in England and emigrated to Australia in 1913. A commercial clerk, Hitchcock entered Enoggera Camp and, on leave from training, married Elsie Violet Harrison ten days before embarking for war on 16 May 1916. Marching into France on 1 December 1916, Hitchcock was attached to the 3rd Echelon Anzac Section. The 3rd Echelon provided the services which kept the combat troops in the field. They remained more or less permanently to the rear of the fighting lines; at base camps, depots and hospitals. 3rd Echelon Headquarters were at Rouen and maintained all personnel and other records.

Hitchcock returned to Australia on 30 April 1919. Post-war he worked at the Brisbane Courier Mail drawing commercial advertisments. During the Second World War he served with the Australian Defence Corps, a volunteer defence corps composed initially of ex-servicemen of the First World War.