Lieutenant Colonel Harold Arthur Faulkner Wilkinson CBE, MC, VD, (1879-1960) was an Australian Army officer and public servant who served as Private Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to successive Governors and Lieutenant Governors of Western Australia and Victoria.
Born in 1879 in Perth, Wilkinson was the son of Captain George Faulkner Wilkinson, 68th Durham Light Infantry. He was educated at the Hale School and joined the Western Australian public service in 1896 as a junior, subsequently working his way up to the position of Inspector in the Audit Department. [1]
Wilkinson joined the Civil Service Corps in 1900, receiving his first commission as a Lieutenant in 1901. In 1904 he was promoted Captain, and Major in 1912. In 1914 he held the appointment of Adjutant to the Western Australian Infantry Regiment for three and a half years and assumed command temporarily on two occasions. In 1909 he was sent by the Commonwealth Government to India for special training, being attached to the 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment with local rank in the British Army, where he served with Bernard Montgomery. [1]
Wilkinson enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at the beginning of 1917. He arrived in France in August 1917 after training in England. He initially held the rank of Lieutenant and later appointed Captain, but was afforded the rank of Honorary Major throughout the war. Serving with the 16th Infantry Battalion at Ypres and throughout the German spring offensive, he was awarded the Military Cross during the Battle of Hamel fighting in the Vaire and Hamel Woods. He was presented his MC by George V at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 27 March 1919. His citation read:
With great dash he led his company forward into the enemy front line system, enabling the rest of his battalion to advance without severe casualties. He then organised bombing sections up a communication sap and trench and cleared them for the advance. At one strong point he led a small party against a nest of enemy machine guns, capturing two guns, and putting the crews out of action. He did very fine service. [2]
In August 1918 he was seconded for duty with the 3rd Infantry Training Brigade at Coxford and was appointed commander of the Brigade in 1919.
In 1939 he was appointed a lieutenant colonel and placed on the retired list. [2]
He served as ADC to Sir Edward Stone between 1906 and 1916 and to the Governor Sir Gerald Strickland from 1909 to 1912. He was Private Secretary to Strickland from 1912 and to Sir Harry Barron from 1913. [3]
Upon returning from the war, Wilkinson served as Private Secretary to the Governor of Victoria the Earl of Stradbroke between 1922 and 1923. In 1924 he returned to Western Australia as Private Secretary to Lt Governor Sir Robert McMillan and to the Governor Sir William Campion. In 1931 he settled in Melbourne on a permanent basis serving as Private Secretary and ADC to Lt Governor Sir William Irvine. Assistant Private Secretary to the Governor Lord Huntingfield and Private Secretary to Sir Frederick Mann. From 1947 to 1949 he was Private Secretary to Lt Governor Sir Edmund Herring and Assistant Private Secretary Sir Reginald Dallas Brooks. [4] In 1948 he was made a Commander of the British Empire. [5]
Wilkinson married Grace Mabel Stanford Bluntish in England in 1917. They had two children, Vaire (named for the place he won his MC) and Dudley.
Dudley served with the 2nd AIF as General Thomas Blamey's driver in Palestine and was later severely wounded by a Japanese sniper in 1945 serving with the 2/6th Infantry Battalion near Aitape. [6]
Wilkinson retired to England to live with his daughter and her family near Bath where he died in 1960.
Brigadier General Alexander Gore Arkwright Hore-Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, was a British Army officer who served as the 10th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1936 to 1945. He was previously Governor of South Australia (1928–1934) and Governor of New South Wales (1935–1936).
The Battle of Hamel was a successful attack by Australian Army and US Army infantry, supported by British tanks, against German positions in and around the town of Le Hamel, in northern France, during World War I. The attack was planned and commanded by Lieutenant General John Monash, commander of the Australian Corps, and took place on 4 July 1918.
Thomas Leslie "Jack" Axford, was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Percy Herbert Cherry, VC, MC was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. The award was granted posthumously for Cherry's actions during an attack on the French village of Lagnicourt which was strongly defended by German forces.
Clarence Smith Jeffries, VC was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was posthumously decorated with the Victoria Cross following his actions in the First Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War, in which he led several parties of men in an attack that eventuated in the capture of six machine guns and sixty-five prisoners, before being killed himself by machine gun fire.
The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regiments and named the 10th Regiment of Foot. After the Childers Reforms of 1881, it became the Lincolnshire Regiment after the county where it had been recruiting since 1781.
Lieutenant General Sir Carl Herman Jess, was an Australian Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars.
Major-General Sir Allan Henry Shafto Adair, 6th Baronet, was a senior officer of the British Army who served in both World wars; as a company commander in the Grenadier Guards in the First World War, and as General Officer Commanding of the Guards Armoured Division in the Second World War.
The 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent most of the war as a member of the famous Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac. It suffered the largest number of casualties as a percentage of its total enlistment of any Union Army unit in the war.
The Leicestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, with a history going back to 1688. The regiment saw service for three centuries, in numerous wars and conflicts such as both World War I and World War II, before being amalgamated, in September 1964, with the 1st East Anglian Regiment, the 2nd East Anglian Regiment and the 3rd East Anglian Regiment to form the present day Royal Anglian Regiment, of which B Company of the 2nd Battalion continues the lineage of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment.
The Coronation Honours 1911 for the British Empire were announced on 19 June 1911, to celebrate the Coronation of George V which was held on 22 June 1911.
The Diamond Jubilee Honours for the British Empire were announced on 22 June 1897 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 20 June 1897.
The 1904 Birthday Honours were announced on 9 November 1904, to celebrate the birthday of King Edward VII that day. The list included appointments to various orders and honours of the United Kingdom and the British Empire.
The King's Birthday Honours 1923 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King. They were published on 1 and 29 June 1923.
The New Year Honours 1915 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were announced on 1 January 1915.
The King's Birthday Honours 1950 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the King, and were published in supplements to the London Gazette of 2 June 1950 for the British Empire, Australia, Ceylon and New Zealand.
The 1928 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 30 December 1927.
The 1915 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were published in The London Gazette and in The Times on 3 June 1915.
Brigadier-General John Townshend St Aubyn, 2nd Baron St Levan,, known as Hon. John Townshend St Aubyn from 1866 to 1908, was a British army officer and peer.
Brigadier Leonard Cuthbert Lucas, was an Australian architect, public servant and Army officer. During the First World War, he served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. During the Second World War, he served with the 6th Division in Libya, Greece and Ceylon, and was Deputy Engineer-in-Chief at Advanced Land Headquarters, South West Pacific Area. After the war, he was in charge of the construction effort supporting the Operation Totem British nuclear weapons tests in Australia in 1953.