CROFTS, Russell Eustace
| Service Number: | W62789 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 1 June 1942 |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | Supply Depot Companies / Platoons |
| Born: | Fremantle, Western Australia, 29 August 1898 |
| Home Town: | Perth, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Manager Richmond Brewing Co, Fremantle |
| Died: | Perth, Western Australia, 16 February 1975, aged 76 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: |
World War 2 Service
| 1 Jun 1942: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, W62789, Supply Depot Companies / Platoons | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Dec 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, W62789, Supply Depot Companies / Platoons |
Help us honour Russell Eustace Crofts's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Corporal Russell Eustace Crofts (Service No:W62789) served in the ACMF from 1 June 1942 to 3 December 1945. Enlisting as a Private with LoC WA Sub Area HQ, he was promoted to Corporal on 23 February 1943 and attached to 8 Supply Depot Coy AASC at Discharge. He served in WWI (Sapper; Service No:5541) in Egypt and on the Western Front.
Russell was born in Fremantle, WA in 1898, second of eight children of Sydney (Syd) Herbert Crofts (b1871 in Hertfordshire, England) and May Letitia Caporn (b1875 in Fremantle, WA). Syd came to Australia in 1890 and was emloyed by th JC Williamson Comic Opera Company - adopting the stage name of Syd Reidy. Syd and May married in Fremantle in 1895 and lived in Fremantle (where Syd was Manager of a Distillery Co and WAGR Employee), Mt Kokeby via Beverley (Commercial Traveller and Hotel Licensee), Wiluna, Kununoppin and Tooday (Hotel Licensee) and Perth (businessman with diverse agencies and Banff Distillery). Following May's death in 1929, Syd remarried in Perth in 1932 - Alma Kate Williams (b1894 in Terrowie, South Australia) - Kate worked in Perth as a Stenographer and Civil Servant. In the early 1940s Syd and Kate moved to Rockingham where Syd was a Farmer.
Russell completed an Apprenticeship in Fremantle with State Implement Works WA and was working as a Fitter and Turner when he enlisted in WWI. Following his Discharge he moved to Broome where he worked as a Clerk and Oyster Opener - in 1923 he was shipwrecked when the lugger he was working on was one of several sunk in a Typhoon. By 1925 he had moved to Mt Kokeby where he was a Travelling Salesman and Hotel Licensee, and in 1926 in Perth he married Kathleen Edith Shaw (b1902 in Kalgoorlie, WA). Russell held various jobs - in 1931 he was a Taxi Driver in Wiluna, and through the 1930s to early 1940s was Hotel Licensee at Kukerin, Coorow and Mt Barker. In 1942 when he enlisted in the ACMF, Russell was Manager of Richmond Brewing Co in Fremantle, and from the late 1940s he worked in Perth as a Clerk. Russell died in 1975 and Kathleen in 1989.
Click images to start slideshow.