Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lance Corporal Joseph Symonds (Service No:2288) enlisted in the AIF on 24 February 1916, and was a Private attached to 51st Infantry Battalion on 9 August 1916 when he embarked with his Unit from Fremantle for Plymouth on board HT Borda. Sapper Symonds served on the Western Front with No 6 Tunnelling Coy, and was attached to Anzac Light Railway Coy when he was WiA in France (Shell Wound to arm) on 31 October 1917. Lance Corporal Symonds embarked from England for Melbourne on 11 May 1919 on board HT Borda, and was attached to 3 Railway Coy at Discharge on 11 August 1919.

Born in Albany, Western Australia in 1896, Joseph was fifth of eight children of Job (Joe) Augustus Symonds (b1868 in London, England) and Alice Cook (b1859 in Essex, England). Joe ran away from home as a nine year old to work on the Thames barges, and was a twelve year old when he joined the Royal Navy and later the Merchant Marines. Joe was an Able Seaman on board the Yeoman in 1887 when he arrived in Albany, Western Australia. He worked as a Dinghy Crewman, and in 1888 was Assistant Lighthouse Keeper at Breaksea Island off Albany. Alice (a Domestic Servant) arrived in Albany in 1889 on board the Oroya, and went directly to Breaksea Island, where she and Joseph married under special licence. The couple lived in Albany, on Rottnest Island and in Bunbury where they raised their family and Joseph was a Lighthouse Keeper, Harbour Pilot and Diver. In 1909 Joseph and Alice moved with their family to a farm on the Arthur River near Darkan via Collie. By 1912 Joseph had returned to sea, and served with the Royal Navy in WWI - Alice remained on the farm with the children. Joe returned to Australia and work as a Mariner, and settled in Gladstone, Queensland in the 1930s.

Joseph was working in Darkan via Collie as a Sleeper Hewer when he enlisted in the AIF in 1916. Following his Discharge, he returned to Darkan where he was Licensee/Publican of the Darkan Hotel. By 1927 he had moved to Fremantle, where he was Licensee/Publican of the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe, and in the early 1930s, a Grocer in Balkatta. In 1933 Joe became Owner/Operator of the Mt Jackson Mine and Butcherbird Battery at Marda via Bullfinch (near Southern Cross). In 1933 in Claremont, Joseph married Eileen Amy (aka Amy) Dwyer (b1901 in Fremantle, Western Australia) - Amy was working in Claremont as a Clerk. Joseph and Amy settled in Marda, where Joseph was a Mine and Battery Owner, before moving to Darkan in the early 1940s - Joseph was a Farmer. In the early 1950s Joseph and Amy moved to Subiaco in Perth - Joseph's occupation was listed as Farmer in the Electoral Rolls. Joseph died in 1980 and Amy in 1991.