General News
28 March, 2026
Charles Harrison
Charles Harrison was born (1901) in Horsham, Victoria and was the 6th of 12 children to parents William Ross Harrison and Rebecca Scanlon.
After he was born, the family moved to Western Australia. He enlisted in July 1917, giving his trade as a printer and falsifying his age and parents’ signatures.
His age was listed as 18 years and 5 months; however, he was only 16 at the time.
After being accepted, Charles was given the rank of Private and allocated No 3876 and was sent to the 11th Reinforcements in the 51st Battalion of the AIF.
He embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT ship ‘Aeneas’ on the 30th of October 1917 and disembarked at Devonport, England. He then spent some time in different training units before being sent to Calais, France, where on the 13th of April 1918, he joined the 51st Australian Infantry Battalion.
The Unit needed reinforcements on the Front Line, in the push to repel the German assault.
With the collapse of Russia in October 1917, a major German offensive on the Western Front was expected in early 1918.
This occurred in France in late March and the 4th Division moved to defend positions around Dernancourt on the River Ancre.
The Germans struck at dawn with gas, artillery, infantry and tanks – the first German use of this weapon to support an attack.
Facing them were, in the words of a senior British officer, “young boys … under fire for the first time”, shaken by the bombardment and unnerved by the sight of tanks emerging from the morning mist, the town was soon in enemy hands.
This became known as the ‘First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux’, and the German threat remained until late April.
As dawn broke on the 24th of April 1918, outside Villers-Bretonneux, behind the German lines, the rumblings of massive engines could be heard.
Slowly, but surely, the vast metallic bulk of 13 German A7X tanks pound across No Man’s Land. Following behind the German armour, came the German infantry and the combined arms assault initially succeeds.
The German tanks and soldiers punch a nearly five-kilometre hole in Allied lines. Villers-Bretonneux was engulfed with British and Australian soldiers pushed out of the village, its vital rail connection to Amiens now in enemy hands.
As the German attack advanced, an attack was ordered by British General Henry Rawlinson to retake the village and just after 10pm on the night of the 24th of April 1918, ANZAC Day eve; the 51st began their advance and involvement in the battle to dislodge the enemy from Villers-Bretonneux.
While the Germans decided to attack during the day, the Allied retaliation would come after dark.
The men of the 5th Australian Division in their respective brigades and battalions surrounded the town. Their aim was to flank and envelope Villers-Bretonneux, cutting off the German military, and recapturing the village.
At first, the German machine gunners were given easy targets.
Visibility for the Germans was still high enough to cut a swathe through the charging Aussies.
As dawn broke the next day across the Western Front, the gap was filled, with the Australian brigades joining up, trapping those German soldiers that remained.
The British units then attacked the remaining German positions while the Australians tightened the noose.
The French Moroccan unit played an important role in the victory at Villers-Bretonneux, rescuing the 51st and 52nd Australian Battalions whose attack was stalling south of the village.
On the morning of the 25th of April 1918, Villers-Bretonneux was held by the Imperial German Army; by the end of the day, it was back in Allied hands.
This became known as the ‘Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux’.
The fighting around the Village in April resulted in huge casualties: the Australian brigades had taken 2473 casualties, British casualties were 9529 and French losses were c. 3,500.
German losses were 8,000–10,400 men.
Unfortunately, amongst the Australian casualties was Charles Harrison, who was killed on the 24th of April 1918 during the battle.
He was buried in the Adelaide Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, France.
His mother replied to the Australian War Memorial document about his death and wrote that he was only 17 years of age at the time of his death.
Charles’s eldest brother, Private Albert Edward Harrison (No 1458), was detached from other various Units and transferred to the 51st Battalion, in September 1916.
Regrettably Albert was also killed 25 days before his brother Charles on the 30th of March 1918. He is buried in the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial Cemetery, France.
Another brother, Herbert Richard Harrison (No 8882), enlisted and returned to Australia in 1915, due to poor eyesight.
He re-enlisted again (No 3160) in 1916 and went to England with the 48th Battalion.
In January 1919, he returned to Australia and was discharged, being classified as Medically Unfit / Defective Eye sight.
