POOLEY, Philip Sidney
| Service Number: | 10636 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Driver |
| Last Unit: | 3rd Divisional Train |
| Born: | Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia, 3 November 1879 |
| Home Town: | Queanbeyan, Queanbeyan, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Queanbeyan Public, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | Tram driver |
| Died: | Heart attack, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, 29 July 1954, aged 74 years |
| Cemetery: |
Woden (Canberra) Public Cemetery, ACT Plot H-CA-A-110 Catholic Headstones |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 30 May 1916: | Involvement Driver, 10636, 3rd Divisional Train, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Persic embarkation_ship_number: A34 public_note: Embarkation date incorrectly recorded as 3 May 1916 on original roll | |
|---|---|---|
| 30 May 1916: | Involvement Driver, 10636, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '21' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Persic embarkation_ship_number: A34 public_note: '' | |
| 30 May 1916: | Embarked Driver, 10636, 3rd Divisional Train, HMAT Persic, Sydney | |
| 30 May 1916: | Embarked Driver, 10636, HMAT Persic, Sydney |
Philip Sydney Pooley
Boer War
Philip Sydney Pooley (Sid) signed up as a volunteer on 6 February 1902, at 22 years of age. Trooper Pooley (Service No 1511) was assigned to the 3rd Battalion Australian Commonwealth Horse, he was 22 years of age. Sid was an expert horseman. Sid and the 3rd Battalion sailed from Sydney on the ‘Manhattan’ on 1st April 1902. The ship carried 594 men and the trip took approximately 32 days, arriving in Durban on 30 April 1902, only a few weeks before the end of the War.
The last ship to return to Sydney after the War, the ‘SS Drayton Grange’, left Durban on 11th July 1902, arriving in Sydney on 10 August of that year. Sid returned to Australia on this ship.
‘SS Drayton Grange’ had been chartered by the Australian Commonwealth Government to carry 1,500 troops. Admiralty Transport authorities in Cape Town received permission for 41 officers and 2,000 NCOs and men to embark on 11th July for the return trip to Australia.
Overcrowding was considerable, the men who had been patrolling the camps brought with them measles, chest infections, dysentery and enteric fever. There was no isolation hospital or disinfecting apparatus. As more men fell ill, hospital beds encroached on healthy quarters, resulting in more unhealthy overcrowding.
The weather was continually wet and cold, the men exercised on the freezing iron deck in heavy seas. Scuppers and shower-baths were used as urinals and constantly overflowed when the ship rolled. Showers were in the open, so most preferred not to wash.
Some 17 sailors and soldiers died on the ship at sea between Durban South Africa and Albany in Western Australia. Most troops surviving were taken to the quarantine station at Albany before being allowed to continue on to other eastern ports of Australia.
On 14 August 1902, it was reported that Trooper S Pooley was at the Sydney Quarantine Station suffering with peritonitis. He was later moved to ‘The Lazaret’ (Coast Hospital now Prince Henry) the convalescent home at Little Bay. He returned to Queanbeyan on 12 September,1902.
Sid spent less than 3 months in South Africa. He was discharged on 26 September 1902. His service abroad was 158 days, and his total service 233 days.
First World War
Philip Sydney Pooley (Sid) enlisted on 25 January 1916 at Sydney. He was 35 years of age, next of kin was his wife Mrs Maragaret Pooley, of 'Spring Flat, Talligandra, via Gundaroo, New South Wales.
Sid had been a tram driver in Sydney. His rank on enlistment was Driver with 3rd Divisional Train, 24 Company Army Service Corps. His AWM Embarkation Roll number 25/16/1.
Sid’s Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on board HMAT A34 Persic on 30 May 1916.
Sid left Southampton for France on 21 November 1916. In August 1918 he was at Rouen, France when he received burns to his left knee after bombs had fallen in his camp. He was invalided to the Sutton Veny Military Hospital in the UK on 14 August 1918. He was discharged on 24 October 1918 to Re Little Moor Camp, Weysmouth.
He returned to Australia on 20 November, 1918 on the Suevic arriving in Sydney, New South Wales on 6 January 1919. He was discharged on 21 April 1919.
Sid returned to working on the Sydney tramways until his retirement. He and his wife Margaret and daughters Aimee and Phyllis together with their families moved to Canberra to be closer to Margaret's sheep property at Talligandra near Gundaroo in 1950. Philip died at home in Canberra on 29 July 1954. He is buried at the Woden Valley Cemetery in Canberra.
Submitted 23 April 2022 by Kristine Howard
Biography contributed by Kristine Howard
Philip Sydney Pooley
Philip Sydney Pooley (Sid) son of Philip Pooley and Mary Ann Pooley (nee Cane) both deceased. Sid was born in Queanbeyan on 2 November 1879. He had three brothers Robert, Frederick and Eric and one sister Ethel.
Philip Pooley was the proprietor and licensee of Pooley’s Hotel in Queanbeyan. He also had an interest in Pooley and Malone’s Star Line of Royal Mail Coaches. They had mail contracts between Goulburn, Queanbeyan, Cooma and Bombala and between Goulburn, Bungendore, Braidwood, Araluen and Moruya.
Philip Pooley died of a heart attacked in 1896, his wife Mary Ann continued to run the hotel until November 1901. Mary Ann and her children moved to Sydney where she was running a guest house until her death in 1902.
Boer War
Philip Sydney Pooley (Sid) signed up as a volunteer on 6 February 1902, at 22 years of age. Trooper Pooley (Service No 1511) was assigned to the 3rd Battalion Australian Commonwealth Horse, he was 22 years of age. Sid was an expert horseman. Sid and the 3rd Battalion sailed from Sydney on the ‘Manhattan’ on 1st April 1902. The ship carried 594 men and the trip took approximately 32 days, arriving in Durban on 30 April 1902, only a few weeks before the end of the War.
The last ship to return to Sydney after the War, the ‘SS Drayton Grange’, left Durban on 11th July 1902, arriving in Sydney on 10 August of that year. Sid returned to Australia on this ship.
‘SS Drayton Grange’ had been chartered by the Australian Commonwealth Government to carry 1,500 troops. Admiralty Transport authorities in Cape Town received permission for 41 officers and 2,000 NCOs and men to embark on 11th July for the return trip to Australia.
Overcrowding was considerable, the men who had been patrolling the camps brought with them measles, chest infections, dysentery and enteric fever. There was no isolation hospital or disinfecting apparatus. As more men fell ill, hospital beds encroached on healthy quarters, resulting in more unhealthy overcrowding.
The weather was continually wet and cold, the men exercised on the freezing iron deck in heavy seas. Scuppers and shower-baths were used as urinals and constantly overflowed when the ship rolled. Showers were in the open, so most preferred not to wash.
Some 17 sailors and soldiers died on the ship at sea between Durban South Africa and Albany in Western Australia. Most troops surviving were taken to the quarantine station at Albany before being allowed to continue on to other eastern ports of Australia.
On 14 August 1902, it was reported that Trooper S Pooley was at the Sydney Quarantine Station suffering with peritonitis. He was later moved to ‘The Lazaret’ (Coast Hospital now Prince Henry) the convalescent home at Little Bay. He returned to Queanbeyan on 12 September,1902.
Sid spent less than 3 months in South Africa. He was discharged on 26 September 1902. His service abroad was 158 days, and his total service 233 days.
First World War
Philip Sydney Pooley (Sid) enlisted on 25 January 1916 at Sydney. He was 35 years of age, next of kin was his wife Mrs Margaret Pooley, of 'Spring Flat, Talligandra, via Gundaroo, New South Wales. Sid was a tram driver in Sydney.
His rank on enlistment was Driver with 3rd Divisional Train, 24th Company Army Service Corps, 3rd Division Train. His AWM Embarkation Roll number 25/16/1. Service No 10636.
Sid’s Unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on board HMAT A34 Persic on 30 May 1916 for Southhampton, England. Sid left Southampton for France on 21 November 1916.
In August 1918, he was at Rouen, France when he received burns to his left knee after bombs had fallen in his camp. He was invalided to the Sutton Veny Military Hospital in England on 14 August 1918. He was discharged on 24 October 1918 to Re Little Moor Camp, Weysmouth.
Sid returned to Australia on 20 November, 1918 on the Suevic arriving in Sydney, New South Wales on 6 January 1919. He was discharged on 21 April 1919.
After retiring from the tramways in Sydney, Sid moved to Canberra with his wife Margaret and his daughters Aimee and Phyllis and their families to be closer to Gundaroo and Margaret’s property.
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