7784
BATTYE, Alan Finla
| Service Number: | 12590 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 11th Field Ambulance |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 31 May 1916: | Involvement Private, 12590, 11th Field Ambulance, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Suevic embarkation_ship_number: A29 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 31 May 1916: | Embarked Private, 12590, 11th Field Ambulance, HMAT Suevic, Adelaide |
Help us honour Alan Finla Battye's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
12590 Alan Finla BATTYE was born at Mount Gambier on 29 July 1895. He was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 22 January 1907 by his father, William Battye, a tanner, of Bertha Street, Mount Gambier. He left the school on 1 April 1911. Mr Hosking, high school teacher, made special mention of Alan for his academic achievements during the annual report at the Mount Gambier High School Speech Day held at the Temperance Hall in December 1910. He was an active member of the local Methodist Church youth group and played tennis for the Methodist Tennis Club for a number of seasons before the war. Before enlisting he was employed at the local branch of the AMP Society.
He enlisted in Adelaide on 29 January 1916 (20, clerk, single, Methodist) naming his mother, Mrs Ellen Charity Battye of Bertha Street, Mount Gambier, as his next of kin. He embarked from Adelaide on the ‘Suevic’ on 31 May 1916 attached to the 11th Field Ambulance and disembarked at Devonport in England on 21 July. He was sent to France on 24 November 1916 and served with the 11th Field Ambulance on the Western Front until being gassed on 26 May 1918, following which he was evacuated to England for further treatment in early June. He was sent back to France in November 1918 but did not re-join his unit until 3 December 1918, by which time the war was over. He went on furlough to Brussels from 26 March to 6 April 1919 before being marched out to England in late April 1919 and leaving England for return to Australia on the ‘Norman’ on 4 July. He disembarked on 15 August and was discharged on 29 September 1919. He returned to Mount Gambier, arriving by train from Adelaide on 18 August along with other servicemen, and was given an official welcome home at the Town Hall on arrival.
Published in Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War by Graeme Roulstone