Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
By 1914, James Stewart (Jnr) had finished his education at the Auburn Superior Boys School and had followed his father into the cabinet making trade, completing an apprenticeship with Buchanan Brothers of Forest Lodge. He and his carpenter brother, George, were part of that great surge in enlistment across Australia in September 1915.
Both James and George signed the oath of allegiance on 6 September 1915 at Warwick Farm. Also signing up at Warwick Farm on that day were ‘Auburn boys’ carpenter Arthur Andrews 27, grocer John Shields 23, postal assistant Sydney White 20, and blacksmith’s striker Arthur Wolff 26. Of the six, only George Stewart survived the war.
Corporal James Stewart was away on the Port Lincoln within a month of enlistment, but George did not embark until December 1915. The brothers may have met in Egypt for George overtook James, arriving in Marseilles in April 1916 and marching into the 23rd Battery, Artillery.
James, allocated to Infantry, 13th Battalion, 4th Australian Division, arrived in Marseilles in June 1916. He survived all the great battles involving the 4th Australian Division – Pozières, Mouquet Farm, Bullecourt, Polygon Wood, Villers-Bretonneux. He was killed by a machine gun bullet in the great Australian offensive in the Somme on 9 August 1918. James had been in the AIF one month short of three years.
A Red Cross witness statement said: 'Cpl. Stewart has often referred to the fact that he had put on weight since joining the Army … On the night of Cpl. Stewart’s death I was his N°2 on the Lewis Gun. We attacked on 8th August and on the 9th we were sent to occupy a trench some considerable distance in front, and which was believed to be clear of the Enemy. When within a few yards of this trench, an enemy machine gun opened upon us. Cpl Stewart and his gun team reached the trench, but we were immediately detailed to open up on the gun giving us the trouble while a bombing party worked up the trench. To do this it was necessary for us to get out on top. And it was here that Cpl. Stewart was hit in the head with a bullet from a machine gun. Two others were killed and a fourth wounded, out of a team of six.'
The telegram advising of his death was delivered to the Stewart home by the minister of the Auburn Presbyterian Church, the Reverend C H Hain.
Only five days after James' death, George Stewart received a gunshot wound to the thigh. He was evacuated to the Cambridge War Hospital, Aldershot in the United Kingdom followed by recuperation at the Australian depot at Sutton Veny on the Salisbury Plain. Returning to Australia on the Nestor, George was discharged from the AIF at Sydney as 'Medically unfit – disability GSW left thigh' on 6 April 1919.
James has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France.
James Stewart is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Presbyterian Church First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn Presbyterian Church First World War Memorial Stained-Glass Window
- Auburn Public School First World War Honour Roll
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal 1914-20
- Victory Medal
- 1914-1915 Star
