CUMMING, James
| Service Number: | 1022 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 17 September 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Company Sergeant Major |
| Last Unit: | Imperial Camel Corps |
| Born: | Bridgewater, Victoria, Australia , 24 June 1892 |
| Home Town: | Bridgetown, Bridgetown-Greenbushes, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Blackwood, Western Australia, 21 October 1979, aged 87 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Boyup Brook Public Cemetery, Western Australia |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 17 Sep 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1022, 11th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Nov 1914: | Embarked Private, 1022, 11th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Fremantle | |
| 2 Nov 1914: | Involvement Private, 1022, 11th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 9 Dec 1915: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 1022, 11th Infantry Battalion, GSW - Dardanelles | |
| 3 Jan 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, Imperial Camel Corps | |
| 15 Jun 1917: | Transferred AIF WW1, Company Sergeant Major, Camel Corps, K Coy Camel Transport Corps | |
| 23 Dec 1918: | Embarked AIF WW1, Company Sergeant Major, 1022, Imperial Camel Corps , ex Suez per HT Argyllshire | |
| 25 Mar 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Company Sergeant Major, 1022, Imperial Camel Corps |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Company Sergeant Major James Cumming (Service No:1022) enlisted in the AIF on 17 September 1914 and embarked from Fremantle for Suez with the 11th Infantry Battalion on 31 October 1914 on board HMAT Ascanius A11. He had served four years with the Senior Cadets in Victoria. Private Cumming served with the Imperial Camel Corps and Camel Transport Corps K Coy in Libya, Greece, Palestine and Syria and was WiA in 1915 in the Dardanelles. As CSM attached to the Imperial Camel Corps, he returned to Australia ex Suez on 23 December 1918 on board HT Argyllshire and was Discharged on 25 March 1919. He was one of six brothers and a step brother who served in WWI. Daughter Doris served in WWII (Service No:103693).
Born in 1892 in Bridgewater Victoria, James (Jim) Henry Cumming was the fourth of eight children of James Cumming (b1862 in Wigtownshire, Scotland) and fiirst wife Mary Jane Redwood (b1865 in Bridgewater, Victoria). James - a Farmer in Scotland before immigrating in 1884 - and Mary married in 1888 in Bridgewater, Victoria where they settled and raised their family. James was a Grazier and Dairy Farmer, had managed the Cream Factory and Bendigo Butter Factory and was an acknowledged expert on pastures and cream and butter production. Following their divorce in 1903, James remarried and Mary relocated to Bridgetown in WA where she was Proprietoress of the Bridgetown Coffee Pal1ce.
Jim started work with Worth's Circus as a Clown before working as as a Caretaker in Fremantle WA in 1910. He was a Labourer in Bridgetwon WA when he enlisted in 1914. Jim worked as a Timber Worker and Blacksmith and for the Railway and Public Works Department before taking up land in Boyup Brook in 1921 under the Soldiers' resettlement Scheme. Jim was a Farmer in 1924 when he married Alice Maud Unstead (b1904 in Mt Egerton, Victoria). Jim and Alice settled in Boyup Brook where Jim was a Farmer and a well known race horse owner. He was succesful in racing circels and in 1946 won the Perth Cup. In 1946 Jim stood as the Liberal candidate for Nelson, and was one of the founders of the Upper Blackwood Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, and a President of the Boyup Brook RSL. Jim died in 1978 and Alice in 1991.
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