100 Days of Heroes: Soldier Nat Abbott was wounded four times in four years

TASMANIAN soldier Nat Abbott spent much of his active duty being treated for injuries before he lost his final fight.

Private Nathaniel Robert Abbott is remembered at tree 251 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.

THIS Tasmanian soldier spent much of his active duty being treated for injuries before he lost his final fight.

Nathaniel Abbott was born at Evandale to George and Jane Abbott, later of 74 Patrick St, North Hobart.

By the time he enlisted in May 1915, “Nat” was living at 305 Liverpool St, working as a labourer and sporting a tattoo all over his left arm.

Just weeks later, the battalion left for Brisbane aboard HMAT Aeneas and by September they were bound for Alexandria to join the fight at Gallipoli.

Nat suffered a bullet wound to the left leg at Gallipoli in October 1915 that required treatment in England.

The next year he suffered shrapnel wounds at Pozieres, France, and was once again evacuated to hospital in England.

In September 1917 he was wounded for a third time while fighting at Polygon Wood, Belgium, and returned to England for treatment for his injured hand.

He was granted leave in London after recovering, but then picked up an infection that required a further two months in hospital.

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Private Nat Abbott.

Nat rejoined his battalion in Belgium in April 1918 and while fighting in France that August he received multiple gunshot wounds to his head, hands and legs and was transferred to Boulogne where died in the 83rd General Hospital, aged 25.

A witness, Private H. Harding, later said he knew Nathaniel Abbott, and he was always called Nat.

“It was about 7am and I was lying wounded in a shell hole when he was brought in to the same place,” Pte Harding said.

“I don’t know what knocked him, he was hit in several places and had a bad wound in the leg, which had a rifle for a splint.”

Nat was buried at Terlincthun British Cemetery in Wimille, France, while a family grave at Hobart’s Cornelian Bay cemetery bears the name of Nat and his father who died in 1916.

Two years on, Nat’s sister and brother-in-law submitted a short poem to the Mercury in his honour:

Farewell to you, dear brother,

Loving thoughts of you we keep.

Although two years have passed away,

Our grief is just as deep.

Private Nathaniel Robert Abbott is remembered at tree number 251 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Walk and on honour boards at the Hobart Town Hall and the former St John the Baptist Anglican Church.

Nat Abbott was the second cousin of Private Charles Victor Henley, who died in France on August 19, 1916, and for whom a tree was also planted on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue.

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Private Abbott’s plaque on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue