Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Stanley George Sandow was born on the 18th of November, 1899, in Grunthal (Verdun), South Australia. His parents were James and Lily Sandow.

Stanley was only two when his family moved to Perth. By this time his first sibling, James, was also born. Shortly after this, Stanley’s other siblings were born, his other brother Sydney, and sisters, Nellie and Doris. Sadly, his mother, Lily, passed away on the 9th of April, 1910. His father married a woman named Olive Radbone on the 4th of September 1911, and together they had another five children in the next eleven years. These were Jean, who passed away as a baby, Olive, Reginald, Edward, who also passed away as a baby, and another called Jean.

While he was young he worked with his father on farms in the region.

Stanley enlisted on the 10th of January, 1918, at the age of eighteen. On his enlistment papers, he was listed as 5’ 8" with dark brown hair and eyes, along with a fair complexion. He was of an average stature for a person of his height in this time period.  He was assigned to the 3rd reinforcements of Western Australia.  

On the 9th of September, 1918, Stanley was promoted to Lance Corporal, however when he embarked with the 3rd reinforcements he reverted to Private.

On the 29th of October, 1918, he embarked on the HMAT Boonah, an old German trade ship that had been commandeered by the Australian Government, at Fremantle in Western Australia, headed for the Middle East. However, when the ship was approximately three days from the city of Durban, South Africa, armistice was declared. Due to this, the ship docked at Durban to re-supply for the journey home. However while in Durban a few soldiers contracted the Spanish Flu, which had spread drastically through the city.

While returning home Stanley began to feel unwell, and was diagnosed with the Spanish Flu. He was confined at Woodmans Point quarantine station and was admitted to hospital, on the 12th of December, 1918. The flu developed into pneumonia, and he was not discharged from hospital until the 3rd of January, 1919.

Stanley was discharged from the army sixteen days later, on the 19th of January, 1919. At this time he returned to his family and his farmwork.

Stanley’s family moved out of Perth, to a small area known as Lower Chittering. While there he married a woman named Selina Martin, on the 1st of September, 1926. Together they had five children, Elsie, James, Harold, Leslie and Dora. At some point during this time Stanley became a Jehovah’s Witness.

Stanley chose not to enlist in World War II due to his religous convictions

After all the children were born, Stanley decided to move to a region of Victoria called Leonard’s Hill, which is a forty kilometre drive from Ballarat, where he bought a farm. 

Shortly after moving to Leonard’s Hill, Stanley considered moving back to Western Australia because he couldn’t settle and may have been missing family, but ended up staying as Leslie and Dora had come down with Scarlet Fever.

Shortly after Dora had her first child, Selina decided to move in with Dora to help her with her child. However she did not move back in with Stanley once the child had grown up. 

Stanley developed a muscle disease, and as he was deteriorating Leslie pressured Selina to move back in to help, since he couldn’t look after himself.

On the 16th of January, 1964, Stanley requested a war pension from the government.

On the 5th of September, 1965, Stanley passed away, at the age of sixty five, from a muscular disease known as Myasthenia Gravis. Stanley was cremated and a service was held three days later, on the 8th of September, 1965. He was buried in Springvale Botanical Cemetery.

He had eighteen grandchildren, two from James, five from Harold, eight from Leslie and three from Dora, however most of them were born after Stanley passed away. All of Stanley’s children have passed away, with Leslie, my grandfather, being the last one to pass away in 2021.