Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The postcard tumbled from a pile of my Grandmother’s photographs.

It contained a birthday greeting along with a few simple words squeezed in at the end: ‘I saw in the paper that Ray Donnelly was killed in the war.’

Realising that ‘the war’ was World War 1, and the card was sent in May 1915 or 1916, I was immediately curious.

Questions raced through my mind - who was Ray, and how did my Grandmother know him? I wondered where he served, how he died, and whether there were still family who remembered him.

Sadly, as I know it, Ray's story is too brief. He was a 22-year-old engineer who was not married and did not have children. He lived in Parramatta and was most likely a childhood friend of my Grandmother, Louisa Draper.

Official records confirm that Robert Raymond Donnelly (No. 115) joined the AIF on 17
August 1914 as a Private with the 7th Company, 3rd Infantry Battalion. He sailed from Sydney on 20 October 1914 aboard the ‘Euripides’. On 28 April 1915, just eight months after enlisting and three days after the first landings at Gallipoli Ray died at Quinn’s Post.

On 31 May 1915, Ray’s name appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Roll of Honour. There were just two small notices, one from his family and one from his ‘old chums’ Fred, Will, Roy, Frank, and Bert Ardill.

I know nothing more than these bare facts, a few short sentences to sum up a life, but I hope his name still features on a family tree and his life and memory is honoured.

I will never know why Ray was important to my Grandmother, but his importance to her means he is important to me.

Rest in Peace Robert Raymond Donnelly.