George Joseph Beshewatie

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BESHEWATIE, George Joseph

Service no: 6771 [1]

Place of birth: Orange

Address: Simpson Street, Wellington

Occupation: Labourer

Next of kin: Martha Beshewatie (mother), Simpson Street, Wellington, later 49 Neville Street, Marrickville

Date of enlistment: 7 May 1917

Place of enlistment: Orange

Age at enlistment: 20

Fate: Embarked HMAT A72 Beltana, Sydney,16 June 1917. Marched into Havre, France, 28 December 1917. Killed in action, Hangard Wood, France, 16 April 1918.

Date of death: 16 April 1918

Buried: In the field, near Hangard Wood, France


George Joseph Beshewatie was born in Orange in 1896 to Joseph and Martha Beshewatie. At the time of his enlistment in Orange on 7 May 1917 George’s father had passed away. George proceeded overseas via HMAT A72 Beltana on 16 June 1917 and marched into Havre, France, on 28 December 1917. According to Red Cross reports he was killed instantly on 16 April 1918 when the trench he was standing in suffered a direct hit by enemy shelling. Although there is no known grave Red Cross files report that he was buried near Hangard Wood in the middle of a ploughed field.

Private George Joseph Beshewatie is remembered on the Wellington Railway Honour Roll, the Wellington Cenotaph in Cameron Park, the World War 1 Roll of Honour on the southern face of the Orange Cenotaph, on panel number 82 on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.


  • Sharon Jameson and Margaret Nugent, December 2018


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