Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Craftsman Kenneth Ranald McDonald (Service Nos:W46595/WX36915) initially served in the ACMF with 44th Battalion (13 January 1942 - 28 March 1943), and was 'in the field' at Mataranka NT as a Craftsman attached to 10th Advanced Workshops AEME when he transferred to the AIF - Trade Grouping as Technical Storeman. Craftsman McDonald was in the NT until August 1945, and was attached to 10 Australian Advanced Workshop at Discharge on 16 January 1946.

Ken was born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1923, second of three children of Edward George McDonald (b1892 in Midlothian, Scotland) and Alice Eva (aka Eva) Galloway (nee Symonds; b1899 in Albany, Western Australia). Edward was a Steward in the Mercantile Marines when he and Eva married in 1918 in Melbourne. Edward spent fifteen years as a Steward with the Mercantile Marines on Australian and British ships, before becoming a House Painter in the early 1930s. The Great Depression saw Edward and Eva leave Melbourne, and drive to Western Australia with their family. Edward undertook odd-jobs - including as a Gold Prospector - before settling in Perth in the late 1930s, where he worked as a House Painter and an Examiner of Apprentice Painters and Decorators.

Ken was working as  Store Clerk in 1942 when he enlisted in the Army, and in 1944 in Perth married Joan Ruby Wright (b1925 in London, England) - Joan immigrated with her parents and siblings in 1935, arriving in Fremantle on board the Themistocles. Following his Discharge from the Army, Ken and Joan settled in Perth where they raised their family. Ken worked as a Store Clerk and Storeman, and from the 1960s as a Salesman. Ken died in 2007 and Joan in 2008.