Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Reg was born on 8 April 1908, in Narrandera, New South Wales, his father, Reginald George Hortle, was 26 and his mother, Margaret Dixon, was 20.
He married Irene Elizabeth Bampton in 1930, in Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia. Reg and Irene were the parents of two children, Gail and Kevin Reginald.
Reg enlisted in the Australian Army during WWII on 10 July 1940 at Paddington, Service Number NX58513. He was discharged from service as a Private on 3 December 1943.
Like his father, Reg was also involved in a serious truck crash, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 5 May 1950.
CAMPSIE SMASH
Two men were killed, and four others injured in a spectacular traffic smash in Bexley Road, Campsie. Three vehicles were involved.
A 15-ton lorry loaded with 20 tons of river gravel spun round and overturned.
Its driver was killed and pinned underneath for more than two hours in spite of the efforts of firemen with an 8-ton hoist and police and volunteers with jacks and iron bars.
A motor truck was wrecked. Its driver was injured, but two passengers escaped almost unhurt.
The third vehicle was a small car. its body was swept from the chassis and wrecked. The driver was crushed and died
instantly. His passenger thrown out and only slightly injured. The driver of the car was Keith Manley, 24, of Rockdale. Police were told he was to have been married tomorrow.
The driver of the truck was Reginald Hortle, 44, of Marrickville Road, Marrickville. His forehead, arms and hands were cut.
The car passenger was Maxwell Evans, 26, of Curtis Street, Banksia. He suffered injuries to the arms.
Canterbury-Bankstown ambulance took Hortle and Evans to Canterbury Hospital. Both men later went home. Two men in Hortle's truck were also treated for cuts and scratches.
The accident happened when the lorry, loaded with gravel, was coming down a steep section of Bexley Road near Northcott Street. The lorry and Hortle's truck collided.
The wrecked truck was thrown across the road. Its three, occupants climbed out.
The crash scarcely damaged the heavy lorry, but put it out of control. It hit the car within 50 yards and scattered its
wreckage over the pavement.
KILLED INSTANTLY
The car-driver was killed instantly. The lorry then rolled upside down to a stop. The noise was terrific as it buried
its bonnet in a lawn beside the road and rolled back.
The 20 tons o£ gravel poured out with a noise like thunder, with the lorry upside down on top of the pile.

Reg died on 19 September 1972, in Jannali, New South Wales, Australia, at the age of 66, and was buried in Sutherland, New South Wales, Australia.