Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Andrew Murray Clugston (Service No:VX10736) enlisted in the AIF on 29 March 1940 at Area 5 Drill Hall South Melbourne and was posted to 2/1 Australian Field Workshop (AFW). Private Clugston embarked from Melbourne for Scotland on 17 May 1940, and from Scotland for the Middle East on 10 March 1941, where he served with 2/32 Infantry Battalion in Tobruk, Egypt and Alamien before returning to Sydney on 6 March 1943. Private Clugston served as Acting Corporal and Acting Sergeant before resuming his rank of Private - graded Mechanic MV. On 14 September 1943 Private Clugston was attached to 2/4 Light Anti Aircraft Regiment when he embarked from Cairns for Milne Bay on board HT Allen. Returning from New Guinea on 31 May 1944, Private Clugston was atatched to 2/32 Infantry Battalion at Discharge on 31 August 1945.

Andrew was born in Warracknabeal, Victoria in 1913, second of three children of Alexander Etheridge Clugston (b1884 in Rupanyup, Victoria) and Mabel Ethel Roberts (b1885 at Moorowie, South Australia). Alexander was a Farmer in Hopetoun, Victoria when he and Mabel married in Willenabrina in 1911. Alexander and Mabel lived in Hopetoun and Portland where they raised their family and Alexander was a Farmer before moving to Annuella in Ultima, Victoria in the 1930s. By the mid 1940s Alexander and Mabel had moved to Warracknabeal where Alexander was a Labourer.

Andrew was working as a Farm Labourer in Annuella when he enlisted in the Army. In 1944 in Melbourne, Victoria he married Julia (aka Grace) Grace Jessie Mears (b1909 in Karnakata, India) - Grace had arrived with her parents and siblings in Sydney, NSW in 1916 on board the Medina. Following his Discharge, Andrew and Grace lived in Warragul and Leongatha where Andrew was a Transport Driver and Depot Superintendent. In the early 1960s they moved to Foster in Gippsland, Victoria where Andrew was a Garage Proprietor before settling in Melbourne by the early 1970s. Andrew died in 1997 and Grace in 2003.