Harry Finklestein was born c. 1895 to Rebecca and Lazarus Finklestein in Brody, Galicia - one of the oldest and best-known Jewish communities in the western Ukraine (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). They escaped the pogroms to England, raising eight children in Broughton, where Harry attended Manchester Central Secondary School and trained as a machinist. In 1914 he came to Australia and commenced working at the Government’s ‘Dural Demonstration Orchard’ in Galston, north of Sydney.

On 19 March 1915, aged 20, he enlisted at Liverpool, NSW, in the 20th Battalion: No. 540 Private Harry Finklestein, claiming to be a ‘British subject’ from Blackpool. He was accepted although his small stature (5ft 2½in and 116 pounds = 159cm and 52kg) did not meet AIF criteria (relaxed the following June). After two months initial training, the battalion boarded HMAT A35 Berrima for Egypt, arriving at Gallipoli on 16 August. It was hardly three weeks before the unhygienic conditions made Harry ill. He was taken by Hospital Ship Gascon to Malta and admitted to St David’s Hospital with dysentery. On 13 October 1915, he was taken on HS Dunluce Castle to England, then admitted to 3rd London General Hospital for a week. Meanwhile at Gallipoli, another Jew in the battalion’s same B Company as Harry, Bugler Phillip Russell, was killed in action on 6 November (see separate entry).

Over the next few months, Harry regained his strength and in June 1916, he was transferred from the Australian Base in Weymouth to Étaples, the main British base on the French coast. On 1 August he eventually re-joined his mates in the 20th Battalion, part of the 5th Brigade now in the midst of its second round of bloody fighting at Pozières Heights capturing sections of the Old German lines. Heavily depleted, the exhausted brigades of the 2nd Division were being relieved by the 4th Division on the night of 5-6 August when they were subjected to an extreme bombardment. The salient the Australians occupied was shelled by the Germans from all directions, including from Thiepval to the rear. The plight of these infantrymen was described by a man of the 20th Bn as: “like waiting for your turn at a bar,” with each man certain to be served in due course, as the shells came along the line. Over ten days, the 2nd Division suffered 6,848 casualties. Sadly, having seen real action in only the last four of those days, Harry Finklestein - aged 21 - was one of many killed on 5 August 1916: including another Jewish digger, Private William Isaacs of the 22nd Bn (see separate entry).

As he has no known grave, Private Harry Finklestein’s name is engraved on the 20th Battalion panel at Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Picardie, France. Joseph Finklestein - living in Salford, UK - received his brother Harry’s kit and later wrote:
“Although an enemy alien, he willingly volunteered to fight. That ‘justice and right must be fought for’ was his ideal. He gave his life - and left us his memory.”