Summary

Certificate of discharge issued to Sapper David James Hinds, service no.4760, on 26 September 1919. Hinds served for three years and 231 days in World War I, in the 3rd Tunnelling Company, and was discharged in Tasmania. He was then aged 26, and a labourer.

Part of a collection of postcards and other documents gathered by the donor's grandfather. The collection relates to the Hinds family of Beaconsfield, Tasmania, during World War I: Sapper David James Hinds, service # 4760; his brother Lyle Gordon Hinds, service #4764 (both served in tunnelling companies); their sisters Madge and Lenora (the latter lived in Launceston); their mother Jessie Hinds; and Walter (last name unknown). David and Lyle survived the war, although Lyle became a prisoner-of-war in Germany. He died in 1953 'due to war service', leaving a wife and two small children. (Ref: letter from spouse in his war service file.)

Hinds signed his attestation paper in Tasmania on 19 February 1916 (and again in Broadmeadows, Melbourne, on 24 May 1916 - the day before he sailed for overseas). Hailing from Beaconsfield in Tasmania, a mining region, Hinds may have chosen to be placed in a tunnelling company. Before he departed his photograph was taken in Broadmeadows by the Darge Photographic Company - the original glass negative is now held by the Australian War Memorial (DA15516). He embarked from Melbourne on HMAT Warilda on 25 May 1916, served in France in 1917 and 1918 relatively unscathed, and returned to Australia on 15 June 1919.

Physical Description

Paper certificate, printed on both sides in black and completed in hand-written ink. Stampled in blue at lower left. Paper has a pink and green tinge in parts, and is deeply creased, broken on creases in places, very tattered along edges and stained throughout.

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