Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Leading Aircraftman Cecil Arthur Hayes (Service No:76747) served in the Militia (1927 - 1930), and enlisted in the RAAF on 16 July 1942 at No 3 Recruiting Centre Brisbane as an Aircraftman I - mustered as Driver Motor Transport. Promoted to Leading Aircraftman on 1 February 1943, he served with No 12 Repair and Salvage Unit (RSU) Charters Towers, 3 Medical Recieving Station (MRS) Port Moresby and Radio Installation and Maintenance Unit (RIMU) in Lae. LAC Hayes was attached to 3 RIMU at Discharge on 3 February 1945.

Cecil was born in Brisbane QLD in 1909, eldest of four children of Arthur Frederick Hais (aka Hayes and Arthur Leslie Davis; b1891 in Allora, QLD) and his first wife Mabel Agnes Bury (b1890 in Brisbane, QLD). Arthur (a Biscuit Maker) and Mabel (a Machinist) married in 1909 in Brisbane, where they settled and raised their family and Arthur worked as a Fireman and Labourer. Arthur served in the AIF in WWI (Service No:4520), and on his Discharge remained in Melbourne, where he remarried before settling in Sydney by 1920. Mabel raised her family alone, working as a Bag Manufacturer before remarrying in 1940.

Cecil started work in Brisbane at thirteen years of age as an Office Boy with Hume Pipe Coy (Australia) Ltd, and in 1930 was their Rockhampton Factory Foreman. In Brisbane in 1931 Cecil married Jean Mabel Wright (b1911 in Forbes, New South Wales) - the couple lived in Mackay, where Cecil was a Concrete Moulder, before moving to Brisbane in 1936. Cecil was working as a Truck Driver for Wunderlich Ltd in 1942 when he enlisted in the RAAF. Following his Discharge, Cecil and Jean settled in Brisbane, where they raised their family and Cecil worked as a Truck Driver and then Mechanic. Following Jean's death in 1956, Cecil remarried - he died in 1998.