Private Bourke trained at the Liverpool camp near Sydney a member of the 30th Battalion which had been raised as part of the 8th Brigade on 5 August 1915. Most of the volunteers in the 30th Battalion came from around the Newcastle area and other parts of country New South Wales.

On 17 December 1915, acting Corporal Bourke embarked aboard HMAT Berrima with the 2nd Reinforcements 30th Battalion bound for Egypt. The Battalion was part of the 8th Brigade which was destined for the Western Front, in June 1916. The Australian War Memorial website states: The 30th Battalion's first major battle was at Fromelles on 19 July 1916. It was tasked with providing carrying parties for supplies and ammunition but was soon drawn into the vicious fighting. Following Fromelles, the battalion was rotated in and out of the front line along with others in the brigade, but played no major offensive role for the rest of the year.

One hundred and five men (105) men from the 30th Battalion died as a result of The Battle of Fromelles. Private Bourke's family in West Maitland received a telegram in August 1916 stating he was missing in action. The Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files provided evidence for Lambis Englezos when researching the names of the missing from the Battle of Fromelles but they also give us an insight into the circumstances surrounding the death of Harold. From an entry made on the Red Cross Files from Bugler & Driver A.C.Walker (792) we learn that Private Bourke was first injured soon after the attack had started but not heard from since…..I saw him in the first wave over at Fleurbaix on 19th at about 6:45pm. He was two before me, he was hit in front of the German wire and lay there. I saw him and he asked me to bring someone to bring him in as he was hit in the back…………….We could not go for him. If alive he must be a prisoner, as the Germans came back to that trench.

This is consistent with the description by C. E. W.Bean, The AIF in France 1916 Ch 12 The Battle of Fromelles of the scene at about 6.30, when the first fatigue parties were crossing:

The original carrying parties in the 14th Brigade, half the 55th Battalion and in the 8th Brigade, half the 30th, had crossed No-Man's Land with their first loads of sandbags and ammunition on the heels of the fourth wave. But with the commencement of the attack the enemy had brought his artillery-fire heavily down upon the old No-Man's Land, which was also much swept by machine-gun and rifle bullets, making the carriage of supplies across the open very dangerous and burdensome.

Private Bourke was not officially listed as killed in action until March 1917, by which time the British Army had received his identity tags from the German Army. In addition the German War Office had also returned a ‘notebook & silk skien' belonging to Private Bourke. These three items were eventually returned to his mother, who also benefited from Harold's will. Before proceeding overseas Harold Bourke had bequeathed his mother £25. Harold also made another bequest to Miss Cecilia Hanna from Narrabri West of the ‘rest of my property and money'. There is no indication from public documents of Miss Hanna's identity but she was obviously close to Harold and would have mourned his death. Private Bourke had served less than 12 months in the AIF.

CWGC