Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Donovan Eric Duthy Trimmer was born on the 18th of February 1894 (ancestry), however there were many different conflicting ages throughout his military papers. His enlistment paper stated he was born in 1893, and later military records say he was born in 1984, and a section in the newspaper from after the war said he was born in 1895. He was born in Tanunda, South Australia to parents Ernest and Eliza Trimmer. Before enlisting, he lived in Kent Town, in Adelaide.

He enlisted on the 30th of December 1915 and put into the "E" Coy 2nd Depot Battalion. Official documents mark his first involvement with it as the 17th of January 1916, however his enlistment was only approved by the commanding officer on the 24th of January 1916. He joined the "E" Coy 1st Depot Battalion on the 1st of February.

On the 7th of February Donovan Trimmer started Signal School and finished on the 31st of May. In Signal school they trained to communicate between people as well as laying and repairing telephone lines. He joined the 5th Divisional Signalling Company when he got back and had the role of a Sapper. Sappers performed a variety of military engineering duties.

He departed Adelaide on the 14th of August 1916 on the boat Itria and arrived in Plymouth, which is just south of London, on the 30th of October 1916.

In his military papers there are some records of him taking leave at the end of 1916, however, there were no specific dates recorded.

On the 27th of July 1917, he was promoted to Corporal but reverted back to a Sapper on the 24th of August 1917.

There are conflicting dates about when he got to France. One source says he went to France on the 4th of September and went to hospital on the 15th of October. Another source says that he went to hospital on the 8th of August in France, even though the other source says he wouldn't have been in France then. He was sick with colitis nephritis, and it was though to be worsened by climate and bad living conditions.

He left France for England on the 22nd of October and was admitted to the Graylingwell War Hospital that same day. The hospital was set up as a psychiatric hospital a few years prior to the war, however, it was set up as a military hospital during the First World War.

It's thought that he left that hospital for the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital on the 19th of November, which was a hospital for Australian soldiers, however, the military records also say that he took leave from the 21st of November to the 4th of December. He was admitted into another unknown hospital on the 5th of December to the 18th, and then took another few days of leave from the 1st of January to the 4th.

Donovan Trimmer left England on the 1st of February 1918 and arrived back in Australia on the 23rd of March on the boat Balmoral Castle. He was admitted to an Australian hospital two days after he arrived.

He was discharged on the 19th of July 1918 at the 4th Military District due to being unfit for service because of his illness. Originally it was meant to be a temporary discharge for a minimum of 6 months.

Not much is known about his life after the war, however, from a Trove article and ancestry it is known that he died in August 1920, but the cause of death is unknown. He died on Harrow Road, St Peters in Adelaide.