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Australia

Son of Henry JURY and Susannah nee MOODY of Mallala, SA

Albert was the son of Henry JURY & Susannah MOODY and was born on the 25th of May 1897 in Mallala, SA.

His parents were married on the 19th of September 1883 in the Congregational Church, Kilerrran, SA.

His father was the son of William Edward JURY & Mary Webster WILKINSON and was born on the 3rd of September 1859 in Plympton, SA.
His mother was the daughter of John MOODY & Mary CAMPBELL and was born on the 25th of April 1857 in Truro, SA.

Albert was the ninth child born into this family of 10 children.

His father was a farmer at Kilkerran on the Yorke Peninsula and then in 1892 the family moved to Mallala, where his father farmed.

Albert attended the Mallala Public School and when he was 13 years old he left school to sit for his Postal Department Exams in early 1911.

In June 1911 Albert successfully qualified as a Telegraph Messenger and was posted to the Mallala Post Office.
He was then transferred to Adelaide as an Acting Telegraphist and Postal Assistant and joined the 74th Battalion Senior Cadets at Unley.

With the outbreak of WW1 Albert’s brothers began to enlist.
Edward enlisted into the 3rd Light Horse Regiment on the 3rd of September 1915 (1869) and then Darcy enlisted into the 10th Battalion on the 30th of December 1915 (6149).

At the age of 18, Albert enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 22nd of January 1916 in Adelaide and allotted the service number 14392 and posted to C Company, 2nd Depot Battalion. He was then transferred to the Mitcham Camp Signal School and then on the 18th of April he was posted to the 1st (ANZAC) Australian Wireless Squadron in Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria.

The following evening a farewell was held for him in the Mallala Institute and he was presented with socks, periscope and a money belt.
A few days later he 74entrained to Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria.

Albert embarked from Melbourne on board RMS Morea on the 30th of May 1916 and after a few stops he disembarked in Basra, Iraq on the 5th of July and marched to Magil.
Whilst he was on the voyage his brother John enlisted into the 10th Battalion on the 9th of June 1916 (6116).
Albert served for nearly 3 years in Iraq and suffered from fever and Malaria on several occasions.
Albert finally embarked for Australia on the 26th of February 1919 on board SS Northbrook. He disembarked in Bombay on the 5th of March and entrained to Deolali.
He then entrained from Deolali on the 18th of March and detrained in Calcutta 3 days later and embarked on board SS Janus the same day for home.

Albert disembarked in Adelaide on the 4th of April and returned to his family in Mallala where he was given a hearty welcome by the residence of the town.

Albert was discharged from the AIF on the 30th of May 1919.

In June a welcome home social was tendered to Albert and 7 other soldiers in the Mallala Institute.

He then returned to his former employment as an Acting Telegraphist in Adelaide and then in 1921 he gained employment with the Berri Irrigation Department as an Assistant Levelling Surveyor and his brother Darcy was living at Lone Gum, near Berri.

Whilst living in Berri he struck up a relationship with a married lady by the name of Mrs Lily May Elizabeth PASH nee NUTLAND.
Lily was the daughter of John Henry NUTLAND & Eliza DORMOR and was born in January 1893 in Battersea, London, England.
Lily was married to Roy Northway PASH on 15.07.1917 in England and they were living in Monash at the time.

Then Albert and Lily moved to Tasmania in late August 1922 where he gained employment with the Hobart Municipal Tramways on the 13th of November 1922.

Roy divorced Lilly on the 6th of May 1925 and then Albert and Lily married on the 9th of January 1926 in Sandy Bay, Tasmania and they lived at 10 Wilmot Street, Hobart South.
Albert remained with the Hobart Municipal Tramways until the 17th of February 1938 when he gained employment as Senior Postal Assistant in the St Helens Post Office and joined the St Helens RSL.

He then transferred to the Military Post Office in Brighton as the Post Master and they moved to 35 Melville Road, Moonah and then to High Street, Oatlands.

With the outbreak of WW2, aged 43, Albert enlisted into the RAAF on the 29th of August 1940 in Hobart and allotted the service number 30574 and posted to No.1 Recruitment Depot RAAF Station Laverton.

He was posted to Point Cook as a Wireless Ground Telegraphist, VIC, HQ at Laverton, Mallala, SA, West Junction TAS, East Sale, VIC and then finally posted to
6 RAAF Hospital in Heidelberg, Melbourne.

During this time his brother John enlisted into the 4th Motor Transport Company on the 1st of March 1941 (SX11553) and was captured and interred in the Thailand POW Camp.

On the 5th of February 1946 he was posted to No.6 Personnel Depot in Hobart for demobilization and was discharged from the RAAF on the 22nd of February 1946.

Albert returned to the Postal Service and gained employment as the Assistant Postmaster in Oatlands and joined the Oatlands Badminton Club and was the Treasurer and Secretary of the Oatlands RSL.
He was also the Secretary of the Midlands Football Association.

Albert retired and they moved to 10 Lamprills Crescent, Blackmans Bay in 1958.
They remained here for 10 years and then moved back to South Australia and made their home at 10 Atkinson Road, Elizabeth Downs.

Lily died on the 13th of March 1976 at their home, 10 Atkinson Road, Elizabeth Downs and Albert buried her in the Salisbury Memorial Park; General B, Plot 456.

Albert died on the 11th of April 1979 at his home, 10 Atkinson Road, Elizabeth Downs and was buried in the Salisbury Memorial Park; General B, Plot 455.

Military

WW1

At the age of 18, Albert enlisted into the 1st AIF on the 22nd of January 1916 in Adelaide and allotted the service number 14392 and posted to C Company, 2nd Depot Battalion.
He listed his mother, of Mallala, as his next of kin.

On the 16th of February he was transferred to the Mitcham Camp Signal School and then on the 18th of April he was posted to the 1st (ANZAC) Australian Wireless Squadron and entrained to Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria.

At the outbreak of World War I, the British Indian Army had a severe shortage of wireless equipment and trained operators. On the 27th of December 1915, the Australian government had received a request for a troop of wireless signallers (approximately 50 soldiers) to be sent to Mesopotamia.
The operators were raised from the Marconi School of Wireless in Sydney and the Broadmeadows depot in Victoria.
The 1st troop, which became known as the 1st Australian Pack Wireless Signal Troop, sailed from Melbourne on the 5th of February 1916 and after stops at Bombay and Colombo, arrived in Basra on the 19th of March 1916. An equivalent unit was sent by the government of New Zealand and it was combined with the Australians to form "C" Troop of the 1st Wireless Squadron.

The in March 1916, the Indian government requested that a third troop and headquarters unit be sent to reinforce these two Anzac troops to form a squadron.
This squadron became known as the 1st (ANZAC) Wireless Signal Squadron and consisted of two Australian troops and one New Zealand troop.
Each troop consisted of four stations.
About half of these stations were more powerful transmitters carried on six-horse limbered wagons, while the other half remained pack stations. Two of the Australian stations were charged with intercepting all enemy wireless communications, while a cipher expert, Captain Clauson of the Somerset Light Infantry decoded the messages and passed them onto the Intelligence Branch.

Albert embarked from Melbourne on board RMS Morea on the 30th of May 1916 and disembarked in Colombo 16 days later.
Two days later he re embarked on board SS Novara, disembarked in Bombay on the 24th of June and then re embarked the same day on board HT Ellenga.
Albert finally disembarked in Basra, Iraq on the 5th of July and marched to Magil.

Then on the 29th of August he was admitted into the 33rd British General Hospital in Magil for 11 days suffering from a fever.

In October 1916, Albert and his Squadron were moved to the front in preparation for the British advance.
Stations "A" through to "H" were Australian, while Stations "I" to "L" were New Zealand.
The mobile Anzac stations allowed the commander of the British forces direct control over columns of cavalry out on operations. The column commanders were required to report via the wireless stations every hour.
The stations achieved reliable communications by using a series of relays, in which the rear most station would dismantle the moment the foremost station began to transmit. Although the rear station usually had a cavalry escort while it caught up with the main column, sometimes it had to depend on itself for protection.

On the 7th of October, whilst near Makina, Albert was admitted back into the 33rd British General Hospital suffering from another fever.
He was discharged to the Convalescent Camp on the 25th of October, but just 2 weeks later he was re admitted to hospital, but this time with Malaria.
Albert spent 4 weeks in hospital before rejoining his Squadron on the 14th of December.

The previous night the British offensive began with a short thrust across the desert to the Shatt al-Hayy, a channel connecting the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The cavalry reached the channel by dawn and began advancing towards the Tigris. During this advance 'G' station of Albert’s Squadron came under fire from a Turkish monitor on the river and it and the cavalry were forced to withdraw back to the channel.

Between January and February, a series of infantry attacks cleared the Turks from the right bank of the Tigris River. During this period, the wireless stations supported the cavalry, who conducted raids, screened artillery movements and tried to outflank the Suwaikiya marshes, a wide flanking manoeuvre which failed due to torrential rains.

Then on the 1st of February 1917 Albert was promoted to Driver and transferred to the Transport Section of his Squadron.
Three weeks later he suffered from a contusion on his right knee, which led to Synovitis, and was admitted into the 32nd British General Hospital in Amara for 2 weeks.

On the 5th of March the British offensive moved on Baghdad, but was checked on the Diyala River, so the British Commander shifted a column to try to turn the Turkish left.
The commander of the Turkish forces shifted his forces away from Diyala to mirror this move, which allowed the 13th Division to cross the Diyala River on the 10th of March.
Following his defeat the Turks abandoned Baghdad the next day, destroying the German wireless station.
Albert and the ANZAC Signallers were amongst the first Allied troops to enter the city and were able to establish communications with Basra.
The following afternoon they were able to relay the King's congratulations on the British success.

Then on the 19th of May Albert was admitted into the 23rd British Stationary Hospital in Baghdad for 6 days, suffering from a fever.
He rejoined his Squadron and they remained in Bagdad, where he was admitted again to hospital suffering from fever on the 29th of July.
This time he spent 3 weeks in hospital before rejoining his Squadron.

In mid-summer, with the thermometer at 130 degrees in the shade, they followed the 7th Infantry Brigade and moved against the next Turkish position up the Euphrates at Ramadi.
They then spent the next 5 months following the Infantry in the push to drive the Turks back and their skills in Morse code were exceptional.
As the Infantry moved they would demolish their wireless towers and then re establish them at the next position, marching for 100’s of miles though the desert.

The British resumed their offensive in late February 1918 capturing Hit and Khan al Baghdadi in March, and Kifri in April. In March 1918, they faced an uprising by a rebel organisation called Jam'iya al-Nahda al-Islamiya in Najaf and laid siege to the city until May, when the rebels surrendered.
For the rest of the 1918, they moved to the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in support of the Battle of Megiddo.

Negotiation of armistice conditions between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire began with the turn of October. General Marshall, following instructions from the War Office that "every effort was to be made to score as heavily as possible on the Tigris before the whistle blew", went on the offensive for the last time.
General Alexander Cobbe commanded a British force from Baghdad on the 23rd of October and within two days they covered 74 m, reaching the Little Zab River, where they met and engaged Ismail Hakki Bey's Sixth Army, most of which was captured in the resulting Battle of Sharqat.

A week later at the Greek island of Lemnos, the Armistice of Mudros was signed on board HMS Agamemnon. This ended the war in Mesopotamia between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire on the 14th of November 1918.
Albert finally embarked for Australia on the 26th of February 1919 on board SS Northbrook. He disembarked in Bombay on the 5th of March and entrained to Deolali.

He then entrained from Deolali on the 18th of March and detrained in Calcutta 3 days later and embarked on board SS Janus the same day for home.

Albert disembarked in Adelaide on the 4th of April and was discharged from the AIF on the 30th of May 1919 and awarded the British War & Victory Medals.

WW2

At the age of 43, Albert enlisted into the RAAF on the 29th of August 1940 in Hobart and allotted the service number 30574 and posted to No.1 Recruitment Depot RAAF Station Laverton.
He listed his wife, of Oatlands, as his next of kin.

On the 22nd of September Albert was posted to 1 SFTS (Service Flying Training School) at Point Cook, VIC for trade training and attended the AWA (Marconi School of Wireless) School of Wireless.
He was then posted to Headquarters at 18.11.40 HQ RAAF Laverton as a Wireless Ground Operator on the 18th of November and the following day he was granted 4 days leave.

Albert was promoted to Leading Aircraftman on the 1st of March 1941 and on the 14th of July he was granted 4 days leave. He was then promoted to Temporary Corporal on the 1st of August and then gained 4 days leave on the 11th of October before being posted to 6 SFTS (Service Flying Training School) at Mallala, SA on the 24th of October.
Here he was attached to Signals and for 2 months was the Wireless Telegraph Instructor.

On the 1st of April 1942 Albert was promoted to Temporary Sergeant and then on the 12th of June he was remustered to Telegraphist.
He was granted 10 days leave on the 13th of September and promoted to Temporary Flight Sergeant in the 1st of March 1943.
He was then granted 8 days leave on the 8th of March and then posted to 7 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) West Junction, Tasmania on the 29th of June.

Four months later he was granted 5 days leave and then another 4 days leave on the 8th of January 1944.
Albert then waited another 4 months before he gained 8 days leave on the 29th of May and then 4 days leave on the 16th of October.

Albert was then posted to 1 OTU (Operational Training Unit) in East Sale, VIC, on the 15th of December 1944. More leave was granted on the 1st of March 1945 for 11 days and then the on the 6th of July 4 days.
He was then attached to 6 RAAF Hospital in Heidelberg, Melbourne on the 17th of October.

On the 5th of February 1946 he was posted to No.6 Personnel Depot in Hobart for demobilization and was discharged from the RAAF on the 22nd of February 1946.