2ND AUXILIARY HORSE TRANSPORT COMPANY,
AUSTRALIAN ARMY SERVICE CORPS
A.C.M.F.
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WW2

The 2nd Auxiliary Horse Transport Company of the Australian Army Service Corps (A.C.M.F.) was camped in the Townsville area during WW2. The Commanding Officer of the unit was Lieutenant "Harry" Morton. 

The unit was also located in areas as far west as Hughenden and Sellheim near Charters Towers. They used limbers to transport material from the ships docking in Townsville. Clive Morton told me that the Australians unloaded coils of barbed wire with their bare hands from the ships and the Yank Negroes used gloves to unload crates and put them on to lorries.

Lieutenant Henry "Harry" Michael Alfred Morton (Q 38825) was killed while riding his horse on the way back from entertaining wounded soldiers at the Army hospital at Cape Pallarenda. This was probably the 2/14 Australian General Hospital at Pallarenda. He had ridden out to the hospital with two other troopers. Harry and his horse were hit by an RAAF Truck on New Year Eve 1942. His promotion to Captain and his transfer to New Guinea came through the next day. The horses were to be used in New Guinea to carry wounded soldiers to field hospitals.

Lieutenant Harry Morton was buried at the Townsville War Cemetery on 1 January 1943. Harry's wife and his young son, Clive Morton, travelled down from Gordonvale for the funeral in Townsville

Can anyone tell me where the 2nd Auxiliary Horse Transport Company
were camped in the Townsville area?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I'd like to thank Clive Morton for his assistance with this home page.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 13 January 2002

This page last updated 23 January 2020