John Starford Cavalier

Born: 22 October 1882

Died: 18 April 1917

Rank and Regiment: Sergeant in the 5th Brigade of the Australian Field Artillery Regiment

Resting Place: Vaulx Hill Cemetery, France

Memorial: St. Peter and St. Paul, Wramplingham, United Kingdom; Framlingham College War Memorial, Framlingham, United Kingdom and; Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia

John was the eldest son of the Reverend Edward Frederic Cavalier and Katherine Louisa (nee Hinnell) of Wramplingham Rectory.

He was born on 25 October 1882 and baptised at Buxton, Norfolk on 7 January 1883. His father was the curate of Buxton, but the ceremony was performed by the Vicar. The 1901 Census records that he had two sisters, Mabel (1878-1943) and Amy (b 1880), a younger brother Guy (1885-1953) and a younger sister Dorothy (1890-1970).

He attended Framlingham College and in about 1907, at the age of 25, he emigrated to Australia and is recorded as being a ranchman and resident of Blackville, New South Wales. He may also be the person mentioned in a report in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser of 29 July 1907 concerning the Auto-Cycle Club’s ride from London to Plymouth and back, “which finished at Thames Ditton on Saturday evening, eleven of the 33 who started on Friday evening qualifying for gold medals by accomplishing the double run in twenty four hours.” Among the eleven was “J. S. Cavalier’s NSU”.

His mother died in 1915.

John enlisted in the 5th Brigade, Australian Field Artillery Regiment in Armidale, New South Wales on 24 August 1915 under the alias of John Harold William Smith. He served in France and Flanders and was killed in action on Wednesday 18 April 1917 aged 34, in the Noreuil Valley (east of Bapaume). He is buried at Vaulx Hill Cemetery in Pas de Calais region, France. The inscription at the base of the headstone reads:

IN PROUD AND PRECIOUS
MEMORY OF MY GREATLY BELOVED SON

It is assumed that John was involved in the fighting in the area of Vaulx-Vraucourt village which was taken by the Allies in the spring of 1917 (and then lost, after severe fighting, in March 1918, and then retaken the following September). Vaulx Hill Cemetery started with just 17 graves in September 1918 and the rest of the cemetery was formed after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields in the immediate neighbourhood and smaller cemeteries. The cemetery now contains 856 Commonwealth burials and commemorations of the Great War.

The Australian Imperial Force sustained casualties for three years of trench warfare between 1916 and 1918 amounting to over 181,000 men, of whom more than 46,000 died. In terms of total deaths per 1,000 men mobilised, the Australian Imperial Force figure was 145 – the highest of all the British Commonwealth armies.

John is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, on the Framlingham College War Memorial and on the Wramplingham War Memorial.

Australian War Memorial, Canberra