11/03/2026
33rd BATTALION A.I.F.
Private: 466 Reuben Herbert KING.
Born: 25th November 1879. Uralla, New South Wales, Australia. Birth Cert:8954/1879.
Married: 1932. Bingara, New South Wales. Marriage Cert:164/1932.
Wife: Alice Eliza King. nee: Holliman. (1891-19..)
Died: 25th January 1954. Bingara, New South Wales, Australia. Death Cert:6626/1954.
Buried: Bingara Central Cemetery. Row J Plot 29
Father: John Alfred King. (1845-1926) Died at Bingara, New South Wales, Australia.
Mother: Catherine King. nee: Campbell. (1849-1933) Died at Bingara, New South Wales, Australia.
22nd April 2024.
I was invited as a guest speaker to the Grand Opening of the Bingara War Museum.
Bingara War Memorial Museum 22/04/2023
What can we and future generation do to ensure our veterans names and their deeds are remembered. It has been said they we die twice. The first time is when we take our last breath and the second time is when our name is spoken for the last time. Projects such as the Bingara War Museum will help to ensure that our veterans names and their deeds are not forgotten.
When the name Bingara is mentioned, I think of “B Company” 33rd Battalion AIF. The composition of the 33rd Infantry Battalion was on a district basis. "A Company" was from Armidale and Tamworth, "B Company" was from Walcha, Uralla, Barraba, Bingara and Manilla. "C Company" was from Narrabri, Moree and Inverell and "D Company was from Glen Innes, Guyra and Tenterfield.
The AIF Database records that out of the One Hundred and Fifty (150) men who gave 'Bingara' as their address: Eighty Four (84) of them joined the 9th Brigade Battalions, with seventy eight (78) of those going to the 33rd Battalion (New England's Own aka the Northern Battalion).
At least 44 men from the Bingara District served with B Company 33rd Battalion AIF were original members of the Battalion during the Great War. They were from places called, The Plain Horton River-Box Hill- Murtonvale Topwater- Barracks Creek-Myall Creek- Garambeel- Spring Hill- Pine Hill- Pine Ridge- Mountview- Bobby Whitlow- Murvey – Boughheel Station- Mount Rodd- Annandale -Horton River- Keera- Green Bend Copeton- Bindi Elcombe- Wilga Farm- Middle Crossing- Castlemaine Halls Creek.
Many of whom worked together, were fathers, sons, brothers and brothers’ in law, uncle's, cousins and best friends. And it was these men that had the sad duty to write reports giving the circumstances of the death of a Bingara Soldier.
15th October 1917
Informant; Private: 376 Edgar Auston BROOKS I knew a man called George Thomas KING. who was in B Company and I think No:8 Platoon. His number was a low one something like 467 and he was one of the original men. He was cook in B Company. Before joining up he was a shearer from Bingara, N.S.W. He was a man about 40 with a dark complexion and dark moustache and about 5 ft 10. He was killed by a shell falling on the cook-house on the 27th of July at Messines. I saw his body afterwards buried close to where he was killed and a cross was put up over his grave with his name, number and regiment.
No 2 Station Hospital, Boulogne.
Home Address: Keera Street, Bingara.
16th November 1917
Informant; Private: 432 Henry Herman HARTOG. He was killed near Messines. I saw George Thomas KING killed and buried close to Messines in the 9th Brigade Cemetery. I saw his grave and a cross up. I knew him well, came from Australia with me.
Harefield, England. Ward: 3
Home Address: Faithful Street, Bingara.
Private: 467 George Thomas KING is remembered with honour and is commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at the Bethleem Farm West Cemetery, Messines, Belgium.
George King enlisted with his 2 brothers Reuben Herbert King and William Edwin King all from Bobby Whiltow, Bingara. Reuben died on the 25th of January 1954 and William on the 16th of September 1958, both rest in the Bingara Cemetery. Rueben’s wife Alice Eliza King, returned to England after his death and William’s wife, Elsie May King, whose maiden name was Hartog was the sister of Herman Henry Hartog who was an informant to Private: George King’s death in 1917.
Sadly, on the afternoon of the 10th of May 1961, Henry Herman Hartog was found lying in a woolshed a few hundred yards from his residence. He also rests in the Bingara Cemetery.
There are many stories about Bingara Soldiers, I have mentioned but a few. In 2005, as a Military Researcher and Collector, I acquired a pair of World War One Medals and a Gold Fob from England. The medals are engraved to PTE 466 R H King 33BN AIF and the gold fob was presented by the Residents of Bingara in the Great War to a Bingara Soldier, Private R H King 33rd Battalion. They were from the Estate of the late Alice Eliza King of Hempstead, England.
So it is with great pleasure that I can return Private: Rueben King’s medals and his gold fob, back to the residents of Bingara and have them displayed in the Bingara War Museum where they belong, because he was a Bingara Soldier from the Great War. “His Country Called He Answered”.
Lest We Forget
David Harrower ACM
22nd April 2023
Bingara New South Wales
Australia.
