Harold Oscar Teague was born on the 15 October 1877 in Bendigo, Victoria. His father was John Henry Teague a commercial agent, and his mother’s name was Elizabeth (nee Pascoe). Harold was one of six children, having four sisters and a brother, Frank Wilfred who died at one month of age in 1880. Harold never married.

Harold attended Brighton Grammar School (BGS) between 1888 and 1894. He played many school sports and other activities, including playing in the school’s first football team in 1893.

Harold (centre, holding the footy), alongside the BGS football team, 1893 (Courtesy of Brighton Grammar School)

Graduating from Brighton Grammar School in 1894, Harold enrolled in Medicine at Melbourne University. In 1901 he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery. According to his obituary in the Medical Journal of Australia [1]. Harold, upon completing his studies in Melbourne, undertook a year’s residency at Auckland Hospital, New Zealand. Returning to Australia, Harold moved to Western Australia where he worked with Dr W. Trethowan. In 1907 Harold opened his own practice in Victoria Park, Western Australia. His obituary states that “he soon gained the confidence of a large clientele. As his practice grew, all the residents of Victoria Park learned to esteem the man for his unselfishness, his energy and inherent honesty of purpose and for his skill in dealing with his patients. It is said of him that his almost brusque truthfulness covered one of the kindliest and most charitable dispositions imaginable. His popularity was not confined to his patients; his colleagues were proud of him, and in social life he was a general favourite. He was a keen tennis player and a good all-round sportsman.” Harold was a well-known and loved member of the South Perth and Victoria Park tennis and lawn bowls circuits, he was also one of the honorary surgeons to the W.A. Turf Club.

Harold took an active role in the affairs of the Western Australian branch of the British Medical Association, having served on its council for many years, he was President in 1915-1916.

Harold’s medical practice from 1910 until his death in 1917 was located at 114 Albany Road (now Highway), Victoria Park. His parents and his sister, Laura Claris Teague also lived in Victoria Park.

 
Dr Harold Oscar Teague’s 1903 De Dion Bouton Q with number plate ‘VP 23’ parked outside his medical practice at 114 Albany Road (now Highway), Victoria Park. (Courtesy of the Museum of Perth) 

On 1 May 1915 Dr Harold Oscar Teague was gazetted as a Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps, Australian Imperial Force. He embarked for service overseas on the 25 June 1915 and served first with the No. 1 Australian General Hospital. In December 1916 he was assigned as Medical Officer to the 11^th AIF Battalion. He worked at the Luna Park General Hospital [2] in Cairo, Egypt “which he organised. Frequently, at his own request, he was sent to the front line trenches in France, where he was killed on February 14 1917”. [3] Harold was mentioned in dispatches by Sir Douglas Haig on 9 April 1917 for “gallant and distinguished services". Major J. J. Nicholas also wrote of Harold “the division has lost the service of one of its best medical officers. Teague knew no fear.” [4]

Harold was buried with 54 other Australians in the Bazentin-le-Petit Military Cemetery, Bazentin, Picardie, France (Plot 1, Row G).

Bazentin-Le-Petit Military Cemetery, France, 26/4/2012 (Courtesy of Steve Clarke)

The loss of Harold was felt far and wide. The West Australian, of 9 May 1917 [5] reports of a special stone erected by the men under his command: “The Late Dr. Teague. A private letter received by a lady in Perth from her son in France dated February 17 [1917] contains the following reference to the late Dr. Teague, of Victoria Park:- ‘Just a line to let you know that Captain Teague was killed in action on February 14 – one of the worst blows we have had, and the boys were very much cut up about it. He was the ‘whitest’ [6] man I have met in the army, and you will hear the same from every unit he came in contact with. We have erected a very nice stone over his grave.” This stone still stands next to Harold’s official Commonwealth War Grave headstone. The special stone placed by his men reads:

"In loving memory of the late Captain H. O. Teague killed in action on 14 February 1917 as a token of love and admiration from the N.C.O.s and men of the 2nd Australian Field Ambulance."

 
 Captain Harold Oscar Teague’s headstones at Bazentin-lePetit Military Cemetery in France (Courtesy of Steve Clarke) 

On the 4 March 1917 Archbishop Riley of Perth conducted a memorial service for Captain Teague in the Church of the Transfiguration (now called St Peter’s Anglican Church), Victoria Park. Harold’s name appears on St Peter’s Honour Roll and on an individual wooden memorial dedicated to his life and service.

At a special Anzac celebration at the Victoria Park Town Hall in 1917, Archbishop Riley unveiled a memorial portrait of Dr (Captain) Teague, A.A.M.C. who had also served as the Medical Officer of the Municipality of Victoria Park. There was a musical program as part of this celebration of Harold’s life, with the Mayor, Charles Harper as master of ceremonies. This memorial portrait still hangs in the function room of the Town of Victoria Park’s Administration Building at 99 Shepperton Road, Victoria Park.

In 1918 some street names were changed to honour Perth’s war heroes, some street names in Victoria Park were also changed, including Walton Road that became Teague Street in honour of Captain (Dr) Harold Oscar Teague.

“Death, the inscrutable, had robbed, the medical profession of integrity and uprightness” [7], the death of Harold Oscar Teague also left a big hole in the lives of those his touched and in the Perth community.

Lest We Forget

Family Tree

References:

1917 'Among the churches', The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950), 3 March, p. 9. (THIRD EDITION), viewed 08 Oct 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article81066148

Ancestry.com. Perth, Western Australia, Australia, Rate Books, 1880-1946 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.

Original data: Perth City Council. City of Perth Rate Books. Consignment number 3460, item numbers 1–626. State Record Office of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.

1917 'Australians on service', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 2 August, p. 6., viewed 08 Oct 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1640145

Australian War Memorial, Captain Harold Oscar Teague, Australian War Memorial, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P11029349, accessed 7/10/2019.

Kulesza, Martin 2016, Harold Oscar Teague More Than a Name on the Wall, Brighton Grammar School, https://www.brightongrammar.vic.edu.au/harold-oscar-teague-more-than-a-name-on-the-wall/, accessed 7/10/2019.

[Unknown author] 1917, ‘Obituary Harold Oscar Teague’, in The Medical Journal of Australia, vol. 1, issue 15, April 1917, pp. 327-328.