195 John (Jack) Fothergill

I usually use this blog to tell the story of returns that we have made. Every so often, I use it to get some exposure for medals we have in a hope that a family will come across the entry. This strategy has worked in the past.

This particular search is for the family of John Fothergill, more commonly know as Jack. Jack was a tram worker in Melbourne prior to the war. His parents address is originally given as Euroa but they later moved to St Kilda. He is a very early enlistee, signed up on 14 August 1914 and has the regimental number 195 for 6th Battalion. After training in Egypt, he landed at Gallipoli at about 1000 on 25 April 1915. He was injured that afternoon and was seen walking back towards the beach. Jack was never seen again and later classified as killed in action. He has no known grave. Jack’s service record has copies of the correspondence between his parents and the AIF in an effort to try to discover what happened to him.
As I started researching Jack, I came across a number of Internet references to him, mainly linked to Dr Michael McKernan and the research he has already done. What Dr McKernan discovered is that each year from 1916 to 1948 his parents put an In Memoriam notice in The Argus newspaper. Dr McKernan wrote a piece for the National Archives of Australia magazine about Jack. The article is on page 5. From this data, I know that his parent names were Robert and Isabella. Robert died in 1939 and Isabella in 1948. Some of the notices mention a brother and sisters but I have not worked out their names.
I have Jack’s Memorial Plaque and hope that this entry might assist in locating his family.

Update on 8 May 11 - photos added.