DAY, George Thomas
| Service Number: | 509 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 25 August 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 4th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, 1893 |
| Home Town: | Sunshine, Brimbank, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Dardanelles, Turkey, 8 July 1915 |
| Cemetery: |
Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli I B 7, Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli Peninsula, Canakkale Province, Turkey |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 25 Aug 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 509, 4th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1914: | Involvement Private, 509, 4th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Oct 1914: | Embarked Private, 509, 4th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney |
Help us honour George Thomas Day's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Son of Mrs. E BULLER of Sunshine, Vic.
Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Private George Thomas Day was born in 1891, one of five sons to Ellen Buller, who lived in Sunshine, Victoria – now a suburb of Melbourne. Little is known about his early life, except that his father died and was his mother remarried all before he enlisted in 1914. He is counted among Australia’s indigenous Anzacs, and it is believed that his mother was Aboriginal but not his father.
11 days after his younger brother Ernest enlisted, George signed up at Ballarat, in Victoria, on the 25th of August, 1914, aged 23. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion in the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force. The First World War Embarkation Roll lists him as boarding HMAT Euripides in Sydney on October 20th 1914. The 4th Battalion arrived in Egypt on December 2nd.
The 4th Battalion was involved in the 2nd and 3rd waves of the Gallipoli landings on the 25th April 1915. George’s brother Ernest, was shot in the head during the first landings, and died of his wounds four days later on the hospital ship HMT Galeka. He was buried at sea, and is commemorated at the Lone Pine Memorial.
George was killed in action on the 8th of July 1915. There are no details of the exact cause of his death, but the battalion diary lists them as being on trench garrison duty. His personal effects, consisting of his wallet, some cards, his badges, fountain pen and gold ring, were all sent back to his mother.