REYCRAFT, Cecil Layton
| Service Number: | 7295 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 12 September 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia, 27 March 1888 |
| Home Town: | Beaconsfield, West Tamar, Tasmania |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Assayer |
| Died: | Died of wounds, Belgium, 7 August 1917, aged 29 years |
| Cemetery: |
Kandahar Farm Cemetery, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium Plot II, Row G, Grave No. 2. |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 12 Sep 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 7295, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1) | |
|---|---|---|
| 29 Jan 1917: | Involvement Private, 7295, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Miltiades embarkation_ship_number: A28 public_note: '' | |
| 29 Jan 1917: | Embarked Private, 7295, 16th Infantry Battalion (WW1), HMAT Miltiades, Fremantle |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Cecil Layton Reycraft was born and educated in Elsternwick, Victoria before moving to Tasmania with his family and living in Beaconsfield, Tasmania in around 1899. He was working for the Tasmanian Gold Mining Company as an assayer. He later moved to Western Australia to continue assaying and was working at the Horseshoe Mine in Boulder, as a ‘solutionist’ before enlisting in the 16th Battalion AIF in September 1916. He had tried to enlist in 1915 but was knocked back for insufficient chest expansion. Cecil joined the 16th Battalion in France just a few days before being mortally wounded by gun fire on 7 August 1917.
His older brother William Reycraft, enlisted in Queensland and died of wounds on 9 August 1918, serving with the 48th Battalion.
They were the sons of John Calver Reycraft and Mary Ann Reycraft, of Beaconsfield, Tasmania. The father, John Reycraft had passed away in Beaconsfield in 1903, and their widowed mother remarried but remained in Beaconsfield. She received all their medals and effects.