MOTHER IS PROUD
OF HER HERO, THOUGH HE
WAS ONLY A PRIVATE

PRIVATE HAROLD CONSORT SMITH

AUSTRALIAN INFANTRY

20TH MAY 1915 AGE 18

BURIED: SHELL GREEN CEMETERY, GALLIPOLI, TURKEY


Harold Smith was 18 and 6 months when he died of wounds in an assault on the Turkish positions at Gaba Tepe in Gallipoli. This means that he can only have been 17 when he enlisted and embarked on board HMAT Geelong from Hobart on 20 October 1914.
I'm pretty sure that Harold assumed the surname Smith and that he was actually Harold Consort Battenburg Street, born in Mathinna, Tasmania to David Charles and Mary Eliza Ellen Street, who are listed as his parents in the War Graves Commission records. Harold 'Smith' was underage when he enlisted and underage when he went overseas. His alias makes me wonder whether his parents knew what he was doing. Their epitaph, confirmed by his mother, certainly grants him posthumous approval.