The AIF Project

Joseph LIGHTBODY

Regimental number4356
Place of birthPimpma, Queensland
SchoolState School, Queensland
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationTram conductor
AddressAnnerley Road, Wooloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland
Marital statusMarried
Age at embarkation40
Height5' 6.75"
Weight130 lbs
Next of kinWife, Mrs Louisa Lightbody, King Street, Thompsons Estate, Brisbane, Queensland
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date4 October 1915
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll4 November 1915
Place of enlistmentBrisbane, Queensland
Rank on enlistmentActing Corporal
Unit name26th Battalion, 11th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/43/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A16 Star Of Victoria on 30 March 1916
Rank from Nominal RollCorporal
Unit from Nominal Roll26th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 14 November 1916
Place of death or woundingPozieres, Somme Sector, France
Age at death41
Age at death from cemetery records41
Place of burialOvillers Military Cemetery (Plot XVI, Row P, Grave No 7), France
Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
108
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: William and Louisa LIGHTBODY, King Street, Thompson Estate, South Brisbane, Queensland; Wife: Louisa LIGHTBODY King Street, Thompson Estate, South Brisbane, Queensland
Other details

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 30 May 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France (date not recorded); marched in to 2nd Australian Division Base Depot, Etaples, 9 June 1916.

Appointed Acting Sergeant with pay, 24 June 1916.

Taken on strength, 26th Bn, in the field, 2 August 1916, and automatically reverted to Private.

Appointed Temporary Corporal, 4 October 1916.

Reported Missing in Action, 14 November 1916.

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 29 June 1917, pronounced fate as 'Killed in Action, 14 November 1916'.

Statement, Red Cross File No 1600607, 4449 Pte James KENNEDY, B Company, 26th Bn (patient, Brondesbury Park Military Hospital, London NW, England), 14 November 1916: 'I saw Lightbody in a shell hole at Flers wounded in the leg, about 20 yards from the German trenches. This is about as close as we got to the trenches that day. We retired, again in the afternoon we attacked and retired again. The Germans came out that night and took some of our wounded away, so I think Lightbody is a prisoner of War.'

Second statement, 4457 Pte R.S. LETTS, 26 Bn (patient, 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, England), 21 February 1917: 'He was hit by a bullet in the stomach. It happened at Flers on Nov. 5th. He was just over our line, and we could see him, but it was impossible to get to him on account of the heavy shelling. He was terribly wounded, and I doubt if he could have lived had he been brought in. We could not see him when we went over on Nov. 14th.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

Originally listed as 'No known grave', and name inscribed on the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux. The remains of an unknown soldier were found in a grave in 1936 in the vicinity of Eaucourt l'Abbaye, France; when the remains were exhumed and reburied, the discovery of an identity disc showed that the remains were those of Cpl Lightbody.
SourcesNAA: B2455, LIGHTBODY Joseph
Red Cross File No 1600607

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