Ronald Hawthorn CUMMING

CUMMING , Ronald Hawthorn

Service Number: 1165
Enlisted: 29 December 1914
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 23rd Infantry Battalion
Born: Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, 25 August 1898
Home Town: Bendigo, Greater Bendigo, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Boundary Rider
Died: Murrayvale, Moama, New South Wales, Australia, 2 March 1990, aged 91 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne
Memorials: Bendigo Great War Roll of Honor, North Bendigo State School No 1267 Honour Roll
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World War 1 Service

29 Dec 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1165, 23rd Infantry Battalion
10 May 1915: Involvement Private, 1165, 23rd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '14' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''
10 May 1915: Embarked Private, 1165, 23rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Melbourne
23 Dec 1915: Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 1165, 23rd Infantry Battalion, Shell concussion - Alexandria
3 Mar 1916: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1165, 23rd Infantry Battalion, ex Suez for Melbourne per HT Argyllshire
5 Jun 1916: Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 1165, 23rd Infantry Battalion

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Private Ronald Hawthorn Cumming (Service No:1165) enlisted in the AIF on 29 December 1915 and embarked from Melbourne for Suez with 23rd Infantry Battalion on board HMAT Euripides on 8 May 1915. Part of the MEF in Gallipoli, Private Cumming was WiA on 23 December 1915. Suffering shell concussion, Private Cumming embarked from Suez for Melbourne on board HT Argyllshire on 3 March 1916 and was Discharged on 5 June 1916. He was one of six brothers and a step brother who served in WWI.

Born in 1897 in Bendigo Victoria, Ron was the youngest of eight children of James Cumming (b1862 in Wigtownshire, Scotland) and first wife Mary Jane Redwood (b1865 in Bridgetown, Victoria). James was a Farmer in Scotland when he immigrated in 1884, and was a Chaff Cutter in Bridgetown, Victoria when he and Mary married in 1888. The couple settled in Bridgetown and Bendigo where they raised their family, apart from a short time in Melbourne when James was Inspector of Creameries for for Melbourne Fress Food and Storage Coy. James was Manager of the Bendigo Cream Factory and the Bendigo Butter Factory and established a dairy farm at Flora Hill in Bendigo - he was an acknowledged authority on pastures, and on cream and butter manufacture. Following their divorce in 1903, James remarried and Mary relocated to Bridgetown, WA where she was Proprietoress of the Bridgetown Coffee Palce.

Ron was a Boundary Rider in Bendigo in 1914 when he enlisted, and started farming at Ouyen in the Wimmera, Victoria on his return from WWI. In 1921 in Melbourne, Victoria he married Doris Leslie Barlow (b1903 in Yorkshire, England) - Doris, a Clerk in Melbourne, had immigrated with her parents and siblings in 1912, arriving in Brisbane QLD on board the Nimitz. Ron and Doris settled at Ouyen where Ron was a Farmer until their Divorce in 1928. In 1931 Ron remarried to Leila May Farrell (b1905 in Cobram, Victoria) in Melbourne. Ron served in WWII (Sergeant; Service No:V374556) and worked as a Water Bailiff for the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission. He and Leila lived in Tatura in the Goulburn Valley and Melbourne. Ron had recently retired to Moama in NSW when he died in 1989. Leila died in 1994

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