The Soldier's Details

Hewby enlisted WW1, he was 2nd Lt. 44th Btn 7th Reinforcements WWI. Service No. 1840.  Snow enlisted WW1 24th March 1916, he stood 5′ 10″.   He left Australia with 7th Reinforcements for  44th Battalion.   He worked his way through the ranks to 2nd Lieutenant  in France.  He was wounded in action on 20th October 1917 with a gunshot wound to his left side.

Hewby and his brother Bill were  former Scotch College student.

 

Above: Hewby’s Football Biography Photo

Please read Snow Hewby’s Australian Football Biography

Snow played 59 WAFL games between 1920 and 1929 for Perth Football Club.  He was also included in 1928 State Team.

 

Read about Hewby’s role in 2/4th Football team

Snow was well known as ‘B’ Coy Sgt. Major, also for his ability as a footballer in the 1920’s especially as a ruckman for Perth Football Club.  He was in the 1921 victorious Carnival Team against Victoria and of course he  was Manager of the 2/4th Football Team.

He left Singapore with ‘D’ Force Thailand, V Battalion under the leadership of 2/4th’s Alf Cough – Cough would have welcomed Snow’s steady hand and experience.    Their work and living conditions on the Burma-Thai Railway for this work force were so appalling almost 50% of the POWS died.

Please read about ‘D’ Force Thailand V Battalion

When the Railway was completed at end of 1943 all the POWs were brought south to one of several large camps.  Snow was at Chungka Hospital camp, before going with the work party to Ubon.

He was recovered from Ubon, Thailand at the end of the war.

 

When Snow enlisted WW2  16 Aug 1940, he recorded his birth date as 1900 (the enlistment cut off age was 40 years) when in fact he was  born 1898 at Gingin) to parents Arthur George Hewby and Louisa Emma Dewar who had married 1894.

His mother Louisa ‘Lu’ Hewby died very young at Guildford Feb 1910 aged 35 years.    Snow would have been about 12 years of age.  He then had an older brother William ‘Bill’ John Hewby b. 1896 and a younger brother Lionel George Hewby b. 1904.

Lionel tragically died of diptheria in 1911 aged 7 years.  Lionel had gone to stay in Wagin with friends during the school holidays when he died.

Bill Hewby S/No 3678 was KIA  WW1 30 May 1916 with 11th Batallion,  Fleubaix, France.  He was just 20 years old. Please read further at bottom on page.

Below:  Bill Hewby

 

Bill and Snow were talented sportsmen at Scotch College and after school.  Bill played for footy for North Fremantle and Snow for Perth and interstate teams representing WA.

Below:  Bill Hewby 1912 playing against Beverley.

Above:  April 1913 Scotch College Winner of the Secondary Schools Fours:  L-R:  Palmer, Bill Hewby, ? and Richardson.

In 1917 Snow’s father remarried to Kathleen Maude Sands. This was Kathleen’s third marriage.

 

 

 

 

Below:  Snow’s father Arthur George Hewby remarries to Kathleen Maude Sands in 1917.  This is Kathleen’s third marriage.

 

Below:  1929 Kathleen’s daughter Winnifred Ripper marries.

Below:  Snow marries 1925 to Elsie Day.

Above:  Snow and Elsie are residing at Lake Mason Station, Sandstone where Snow was employed as Manager.  This station today is a Conservation Park.  Lake Mason  was established in 1906 as a cattle station, known as ‘Berrigun’. Later it changed to sheep and wool production. That continued for more than 80 years. In 2000 the state government purchased Lake Mason.

Above:  Original homestead Lake Mason Station.

 

Below:  Notice 1921 to Perth players confirming they are appointed into to team and are requested to CATCH A TRAIN FROM PERTH AT 1.30PM !!  We cant begin to imagine what today’s WAFL players would say to this.

 

 

 

Below:  Snow and his wife, Elsie Elisabeth (nee Day) – had married about 1925, and had their first child  a son Arthur Edward Hewby in 1926. A daughter Lois Kathleen was born 1928, and the family are living at Southern Cross where Snow has the Palace Hotel.

Below:  Snow participates 1930 in cricket North-West.

 

Above:  Snow’s grandfather i.e. father of his mother Louisa, died 1938

Below:  Snow’s father, Arthur George Hewby died in 1954.  Arthur had his first wife die in 1910, his youngest son in 1911 aged 7 years and then his eldest son Bill died WW1.

 

‘Snow’ Hewby of Nollamara died 2 Jan 1972 aged 73 years.  His wife Elsie had died in 1967.

 

Below:  Snowy’s football stories – reliving the 1921 WA Team which defeated Victoria!

 

 

 

 

L/Cpl WILLIAM JOHN HEWBY,  3678 enlisted 4 Oct 1915 aged 19 years and 8 months. Bill was 5′ 11 1/2″ tall and had been employed as a Survey Cadet.  He first arrived Egypt to a AIF training camp with reinforcements for 11th Battalion. The 11th Btn embarked Alexandria arriving Marsielle, France 8 April 1916.

‘They travelled by train to Flêtre where the battalion was billeted until the 19 April, before moving to Sailly, where it commemorated Anzac Day on 25 April. In mid-May, after a period of acclimatisation and training to prepare them for the European battlefield, the 11th Battalion moved up to the front line around Petillon in the Fleurbaix sector.

The 11th Battalion were in the front lines near Cordonnerie Farm at Fleurbaix on 30 May 1916 when at 8.00 pm the Germans subjected them to an intense artillery bombardment which lasted 1 hour 20 minutes.  At 9.00 pm a small raid of Germans were crossing no man’s land and took several Australian prisoners.  The battalion lost 36 men KIA, 61 WIA and 6 missing. We believe Bill Hewby was one of those killed in the attack.’   information from Birtwhistle History.

Bill’s father received no further details other than his son was KIA. The AIF returned to Bill’s family the following items:

Identity disc, belt, cigarette case (damaged), knife, mirror, fountain pen, wallet, letters, photos and note book.

 

Below:  Scotch College WW1 Honour Board.

 

Below:  Snow’s father Arthur Hewby is recorded in the Encylopedia of Western Australia.