Private John Jack Ernest Johns

My Connection to Jack

Jack’s grand-niece Bev Senesi and my mum grew up together and my grandparents where friends with Beth’s Parents Merv and Ian French.

One of the things I have learned as the years have passed is any connection you can find to your grandparents is very special and hence the reason I choose Jack as my solider.

Remembering Jack

John Ernest Johns known as Jack was a Gunns Plains boy. John was

• Born on 1 May 1890
• Went to school in Ross
• Was a Farmer
• Married to Ada
  • Enlisted in the Army as Private 6102 on 30 May 916
  • His Brother Sidney signed up with Jack on the same day and was assigned Private 6103.
  • He was assigned to the 12th Infantry Battalion
• The 12th Battalion was an infantry battalion originally raised for the First Australian Imperial Force during the First World War. The battalion was recruited from Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia and formed part of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. It served throughout the war, firstly during the Gallipoli Campaign and then on the Western Front.
• Today its lineage is perpetuated by the 12th/40th Battalion, Royal Tasmania Regiment, a unit which continues to serve in the Australian Army Reserve.
• Jack departed Hobart 8 August 1916 on HMAT Ballarat and arrived at the training camps in Egypt, September 2016.
• Jack was deployed to France to France on 4^th December 1916, after a short illness he returned to France and rejoined his battalion on 19^th January 1917.
• Jack wrote to his wife Ada when he could on cards that’s were hand-stitched by the local women in France for the soldiers to send home to their loved ones.
• Jack was killed in action, France, 15 April 1917,
• He was 26 years old.
• On 20^th April 1917 he was awarded the Military Medal for valuable services and personal bravery in rescuing wounded and carrying messages with instructions on 9 April 1917.
• Jack’s three brothers continued to fight in the First World War and all returned home to their loved ones.

Honouring Jack’s Legacy

Dear Jack,

As you rest here under the sun during the day and the stars at night amongst the poppies on the flinder’s range, you have never been forgotten.

Your Brothers made it home to your parents where they went on to have happy and full lifes with families of the own.

Your extended family is connected by blood, but also through the pride and honour of which they all have for the “John’s” Brother, particularly their uncle, Jack for the ultimate sacrifice you paid for your country.

Jack your loved and loving wife Ada, found happiness and remarried, but I have no doubt she never stopped loving her “dear old boy” as the way she greeted you in her many postcards send to you at the frontline.

Jack, you never knew this but you were awarded the Military Medal for valuable services and personal bravery in rescuing wounded and carrying messages with instructions on 9 April 1917.

Jack your family is ensuring that your legacy will always remain present and live on, your name along with your three brothers appear on the Gunns Plains Roll of Honor that was hung in the hall after a service held in September 1930.

On 29th November 2014 a Memorial Seat was placed at the Gunns Plains Caves in memory of all the soldiers from Gunns planes district who served in WW1.

Jack on 13 August 2017 a plaque with your name was placed next to your parents grave in Ulverstone, a symbolic return and reconnection to your parents.

Jack as I stand here today with the talented young folk who are the 2024 winners of the Tasmanian Frank MacDonald Memorial competition, I am full of hope and promise that as we hand to the next generation the privilege of protecting and honouring our fallen soldiers, I have no doubt your legacy is in kind, capable and caring hands.

Jack at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will always remember you

Thank you, Jack.

Katie Kelly
Tour Leader, Frank MacDonald MM Memorial Prize 2024
Department of Premier and Cabinet