JEFFERS, Ralph Henry
| Service Number: | 4523 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 3 August 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 6th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Strathbogie, Victoria, Australia, 1888 |
| Home Town: | Camperdown, Corangamite, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Colac, Victoria, Australia, 1926, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Euroa Telegraph Park |
World War 1 Service
| 3 Aug 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4523, 6th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 28 Jan 1916: | Involvement Private, 4523, 6th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 28 Jan 1916: | Embarked Private, 4523, 6th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Melbourne |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Three Jeffers brothers from Camperdown all enlisted in Melbourne on the same day, 3 August 1915. Roy Ernest, Ralph Henry, and William James Jeffers were all assigned to the 6th Battalion AIF and given the consecutive regimental numbers of 4522, 4523 and 4524. A fourth brother 5699 Private George Gordon Jeffers, a married man, enlisted in the 59th Battalion during late 1915.
4522 Private Roy Ernest Jeffers, 6th Battalion was killed in action by a shell at Pozieres on the 18 August and 4524 Pte. William James Jeffers, 6th Battalion AIF was killed in action during a raid on the 11 November 1916.
On the 25 July 1917 Ralph Henry Jeffers wrote a letter to the O.C. D Company 6th Battalion, “Owing to all male members of my family enlisting for active service, five all told, two of whom have been killed and one brother has been missing for eight months and I were supporting our young sisters, two of whom are very young. I am the only brother left now of any support to them. I have a married brother on active service but he has his own home to look to, so cannot help the sisters at home. My mother is dead and my father has been ailing for some years and cannot follow up constant work, so I consider it is my duty to get back to them. I wish to be paraded to the Colonel so that I may obtain a chance of getting back to Australia”.
His request was granted at the highest levels of the AIF, and he was ordered to be returned to Australia 27 September 1917.