Norman Henry Mason

MASON, Norman Henry- – – SPC 1911

DoB:- – 16 March 1894, Ballarat, VIC

Father:- – George Henry Mason

Mother:- – Adele Cecile

Norman Mason was a boarder from Murtoa, a small town in the north-west of Victoria.

Service No:- 3540

Rank:- – Private

Unit:- – 8th Battalion

Norman Henry Mason was 19 years and four months old when he enlisted on 31 July 1915. He was a single man, working as a bank clerk. He was five feet, five and a half inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He also had a tattoo on his right forearm depicting the Australian Coat of Arms.

He embarked from Australia on 5 January 1916, proceeding via Serapeum and Alexandria in Egypt, to Marseilles in France.

On 18 August 1916 Private Mason was wounded at Pozieres in France. He sustained a shrapnel wound to his right leg and buttock, and a fracture to his tibia and fibula which were considered to be so serious that he was evacuated back to the UK for treatment. The medical report prepared on 11 February 1917 stated that his present condition was that –

-‘-¦his wound [had] healed. Bone carried away from left tibia and fibula so that the left [leg] is 2 inches short. [He has] difficulty in walking -¦’

Private Mason embarked from England for Australia on 6 April 1917 aboard the Thermistocles, invalided to Australia for a -‘change’ due to the injuries to his legs. He was discharged as medically unfit on 7 August 1917.

Two years after his return to civilian life, Norman Mason married Lillian Woodward in Queensland on 16 January 1919. The electoral rolls of 1931 reveal that Norman and Lillian had moved to Victoria, and were living at 76 St Andrew Street, Brighton with Norman’s mother Adele. Norman was working as a painter.

At the outbreak of WWII, Norman enlisted for service again. His service number was N77661, and he was assigned to HQ 2nd Salvage Depot. He died of illness on 25 June 1942 at Concord, NSW at the age of 48, while still serving his country.

He was buried at the Smithfield General Cemetery in NSW.

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