I just couldn't resist this soldier .... what a "Scouser " !! Of Irish descent, but born in Liverpool, Barney Hines ran away to the army at the age of 14 but was dragged home by his mother. Two years later he joined the Royal Navy and served during the Boxer Rebellion in China. He fell sick with malaria, was discharged, went gold seeking around the world and served in South Africa during the Boer War. When the Great War broke out he was working in a sawmill in Australia. Despite being in his early 40s, he tried to enlist but was turned down on medical grounds. Undeterred, he haunted recruting centres until he was accepted. His time in France added to his legend. He generally disdained conventional weapons such as his Lee Enfield rifle preferring to go into action with two sandbags packed with Mills bombs (hand grenades). Sandstone with plaques in a parkland setting, this memorial is a part of the Mt Druitt Waterholes Remembrance Garden. The main plaque portrays a copy of a photograph of John 'Barney' Hines which is held in the collections of the Australian War Memorial. Inscription: The Face that got the Kaiser's goat! When the photo of brazen World War 1 digger John (Barney) Hines, The Souvenir King, fell into the hands of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm he promptly put a price on Barney's head, dead or alive. But the 'barbarian' the Kaiser believed typical of Australian troops on the Western Front, spent the rest of his days in Mount Druitt and died in Concord Repatriation Hospital in 1958, age 84. John Hines Road in Minchinbury recalls the lovable larrikin. (Australian War Memorial) 2296 Private J. Hines 45 Battalion 2.1.1958 Age 84. http://www.warmemorialsnsw.asn.au/Details.cfm?MemNo=806 http://www.australiansatwar.com.au/stories/stories.asp?war=W1&id=145
The final resting place of John Hines, in Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney John ‘Barney’ Hines lies in an unmarked grave - Barney was quite a celebrity in the Colyton area of Sydney and was a popular visitor to the Concord Repatriation Hospital, where he would supply patients with eggs from his farm.
