Herbert John Haines
ca. 1892 - 2 December 1934
Herbert John Haines (10‑70‑3)
Enlisted in 1915 in South Australia at age of 23. He was a tramway conductor before the war.
- Promoted to Lance Corporal in 1916 in the field in France
- Accidentally injured 7 days later
- Reporting missing in action in France in 11 November 1917, it was found he was a prisoner of war in Germany, released in January 1919. So, prisoner for year.
His Red Cross POW file included these articles:
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When he returned home, the repatriation department wrote to his previous employer trying to get him employed back on the trams. He worked there for around 12 months before he left.
He married in 1919 after coming back to Adelaide and had two children, one died as a baby. He was the support person for his mother. He was allocated a block of land in 1922. After marital problems he separated from his wife who wrote when she applied for a widow’s pension, which was knocked back,
“I was married to Herbert Haines in 1919 after his return from service and at that time he suffered from rheumatism. Immediately after our marriage he seemed very peculiar – would sit for long periods without speaking and avoided company. He would sometimes not converse with me for days.
About 1925 he began to wander away from home and was absent on occasions for about 3 weeks, at the end of which time he returned home and did not appear to know where he had been. From 1927 he did practically no work on the farm and in 1928 he gave it up and the farm was repossessed – he left me and I did not see him again.
Herbert ended up in Queensland and spent some time in Toowoomba. He developed mental problems and died penniless in prison from heart failure after he stole watch and got 2 months jail. Herbert died in 1934 from a heart attack at the age of 43.
Henry is getting an official war grave as he was a prisoner of war so it’s automatic.
The front page of the red cross files available on the internet are as follows
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