Eric William GITTOES

GITTOES, Eric William

Service Numbers: N217949, NX98297, NX98297
Enlisted: 4 July 1941
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/1st Field Company / Squadron RAE
Born: Gundagai, New South Wales, Australia, 5 April 1908
Home Town: Bondi, Waverley, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Grocer
Died: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 3 November 1983, aged 75 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Rookwood Cemeteries & Crematorium, New South Wales
The New South Wales Garden of Remembrance
Memorials:
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World War 2 Service

4 Jul 1941: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, N217949
29 Dec 1941: Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, N217949
25 Sep 1942: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, NX98297
24 Nov 1944: Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, NX98297 , 2nd/1st Field Company / Squadron RAE, embarked Cairns for Aitape on board Duntroon
30 Jan 1946: Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Sapper, NX98297, 2nd/1st Field Company / Squadron RAE, embarked Wewak for Brisbane on board SS Ormiston
22 Feb 1946: Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, NX98297

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Private Eric William Gittoes (Service Nos:N217949/NX98297) initially served in the ACMF in 1941 with Army Service Corps 1 Division, before enlisting in the AIF on 25 September 1942. Sapper Gittoes served in Aitape and Wewak (24 November 1944 - 30 January 1946) with 2/1 Field Coy, and was attached to AASC 1 Division at Discharge on 22 February 1946.

Eric was born in Gundagai, New South Wales in 1908, second of four children of George (Mel) Melville Lionel Gittoes (b1880 in Gundagai, New South Wales) and Hannah Rebecca Knight (b1880 in Penrith, New South Wales). Mel (a Farmer) and Hannah (a Teacher at Spitter's Creek) married in 1906 in Leichardt, and settled in Nangus via Gundagai where they raised their family and Mel was a Farmer. In the 1920s the family moved to Cootamundra, and in 1933 Mel and Hannah divorced. Mel settled in Cootamundra, where he was a Dealer; Hannah moved to Wagga Wagga before settling in Sydney.

Eric was a Grocer in Coolamon and Wagga Wagga in the 1930s, and was a Grocer in Sydney in 1941 when he married Doris (Dot) Elizabeth Rogan (b1916 in Woolongong, New South Wales). Following his Discharge from the Army, Eric and Dot settled in Sydney, where they raised their family and Eric worked as a Grocer and, from the early 1950s, as a Surveyor's Assistant/Chainman. Eric died in 1983 and Dot in 2008.

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