| Places | |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | REL/01248.001 |
| Collection type | Heraldry |
| Object type | Medal |
| Physical description | Bronze |
| Maker |
Unknown |
| Place made | United Kingdom |
| Date made | c 1920 |
| Conflict |
First World War, 1914-1918 |
1914-15 Star: Private Samuel James Patterson, 16 Battalion, AIF
Description
1914-15 Star. Impressed on reverse with recipient's details.
History / Summary
Samuel James Patterson was a 39 year old married engine driver from Subiaco, Western Australia, when he enlisted with the AIF in July 1915. He served as a private with the 16th Battalion. With his unit, he embarked from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 13 October 1915. In March 1916, he was hospitalised with enteric (intestinal) complications in the military hospital in Shubra, Cairo. He later rejoined his unit in Marseilles, France.
On 11 August 1916, Patterson died of wounds he received in action during the fighting at Pozieres. He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France.
His service record file shows that his wife, Jane Elizabeth, took receipt of his 1914-15 Star in September 1920. In a letter to the Base Records Officer in 1921, seeking financial assistance as a war widow after her second husband deserted her, she wrote “I gave the very best husband that I lived happily with for twenty years to fight for his country and now I at my age [over 45] I am left to battle the world on my own.”