REIDY, William Horace
| Service Numbers: | WX4982, WX4982 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 23 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/7th Field Ambulance |
| Born: | Brunswick, Victoria, Australia, 5 April 1902 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Shunter (WAGR) |
| Died: | Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, 28 September 1963, aged 61 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, Queensland |
| Memorials: |
World War 2 Service
| 23 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, WX4982 | |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Apr 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Lance Corporal, WX4982, 2nd/7th Field Ambulance, embarked Fremantle for Palestine | |
| 2 Apr 1944: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, WX4982, 2nd/7th Field Ambulance, embarked Middle East for Adelaide via Bombay | |
| 10 Apr 1944: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, WX4982 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Corporal William Horace Reidy (Service No:WX4982) enlisted in the AIF on 23 July 1940 as a Private, and marched out to 2/3 Field Ambulance Corps AAMC. Lance Corporal Reidy was attached to 2nd/7th Field Ambulance when he embarked with his Unit on 15 April 1941 from Fremantle for Palestine. Promoted to Corporal on 11 May 1942, he embarked from the Middle East for Port Adelaide via Bombay on 2 April 1944, and was attached to 1 Australian Field Bakery at Discharge on 10 April 1944 (Medically Unfit).
Bill was born in Brunswick, Melbourne, Victoria in 1902 (BDM Vic:8430), eldest of three children of Horace Griffin Reidy (b1881 in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria) and Ellen (Nellie) Constance Wimpney (b1886 in Melbourne, Victoria). Horace (a Clerk) and Nellie (a Saleswoman) married in 1901 in Melbourne, where they settled and raised their family. By 1907 the family had moved to Condah via Branxholme - Horace joined the Department of Public Works, initially as a Timekeeper, then Clerk and Paymaster, and Nellie was Licensee of the Forrester's Arms via Warrnambool. In 1913 Horace died - he was returning home from Portland (where he was Paymaster at the Portland Drainage Works) on the SS Eumerella when he fell overboard and drowned. Nellie later remarried and lived in Melbourne.
Bill started work in Melbourne Ports as a Deckhand, and in 1924 in Nhill married his first wife Ivy Pearl Caroline Sherwell (b1907 in Nhill, Victoria). Bill worked in Nhill as a Carrier before moving to Western Australia - he and Ivy divorced in 1934, and both remarried. Bill worked for the railways (WAGR) in Perth, initially as a Casual Labourer, then as a Porter. In 1930 in Perth he married Mary Cecilia Alanskas (b1909 in Glasgow, Scotland). Bill was a Shunter with the WAGR in 1940 when he enlisted in the Army, and following his Discharge, he and Mary divorced in 1945 - both remarried. Bill moved to Brisbane, QLD and in 1947 married Jane Elizabeth Simms (b1912 in Sydney, New South Wales) - Jane had lived in Fremantle, Western Australia with her parents before moving to Brisbane with Bill. Bill and Jane lived in Brisbane and Dalby, where Bill worked as a Salesman and Transport Driver before moving to Toowoomba in the early 1960s. Bill died in 1963 and Jean died in 1967.
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