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John Dwyer Bourke - Information

John Dwyer was one of many children of Campbelltown-born James Michael Bourke and his wife Ellen. After moving around, the Bourkes settled back in Campbelltown where John was born in 1891. James and Ellen had three more children and eventually moved to the city to Lewisham, where John found work as a telephone mechanic. When he was 24 years old, he enlisted in the AIF in Sydney just before Christmas on the 23rd of December 1915.

John was then sent overseas as a Sapper with the 7th Field Company Engineers on the 31st of March 1916, embarking Sydney on the HMAT Star of Victoria. His unit landed at Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt in May, and from there, were sent to France in early August. On the 30th of August, John was transferred to the 15th Field Company Engineers as a Driver. His work took him in and behind the lines, where he experienced the terrible conditions on the Western Front. In March 1918, he was taken to hospital sick, and was evacuated to England on the 22nd of April. By late September, John returned to the 15th Field Company Engineers in France and remained with them until the end of the war. He left England to return to Australia on the 25th of March 1919.