Rupert Cyril UNSTEAD

Rupert Cyril UNSTEAD Update Details

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UNSTEAD, Rupert Cyril

Service Number:	5107
Enlisted:	8 January 1916, Blackboy Hill, WA
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	28th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Mount Egerton, Victoria, Australia, 1895
Home Town:	Dinninup, Boyup Brook, Western Australia
Schooling:	Scott's Brook State School, Western Australia
Occupation:	Farmer
Died:	Killed in Action, Belgium, 20 September 1917
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Panel 23. Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Boyup Brook War Memorial, Kings Park Western Australia State War Memorial, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial

World War 1 Service

8 Jan 1916:	Enlisted AIF WW1, 5107, Blackboy Hill, WA
18 Jul 1916:	Involvement Private, 5107, 28th Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Seang Bee embarkation_ship_number: A48 public_note: ''
18 Jul 1916:	Embarked Private, 5107, 28th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Seang Bee, Fremantle

Help us honour Rupert Cyril Unstead's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Carol Foster

Son of Alfred Unstead and Jane Unstead nee Tellens of Scotts Creek, Upper Blacktown, WA formerly of Gordons, Victoria.

25 March 1917 - wounded. Shell wound to the buttock. Transferred to England on 16 April 1017 aboard HS Panama

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Private Rupert Cyril Unstead (Service No:5107) enlisted on 8 January 1916 in the AIF and was attached to 28 Infantry Battalion when he embarked from Fremantle for Plymouth on 18 July 1916 on board HMAT Seang Bee A48. On 2 November 1916 Private Unstead embarked from England for France on board SS Henrietta. He was hospitalised with Mumps in Rouen, France and was WiA on the 25 March 1917. Private Unstead rejoined his Battalion and was KiA at Polygon Wood on 20 September 1917. His death is described in the Red Cross Missing and Wounded Files (AWM) '... he was killed by a shell ... at Polygon Wood' and 'at the time he was an a/stretcher bearer ... as far as I know nothing was picked up of Unsted; I think he was blown to pieces'.

Born in 1895 in Mt Egerton in Victoria, Rupert was the second of five children of Alfred (Alf) Unstead (b1869 at Le Fevre Peninsular, South Australia) and Jane Sallens (b1871 in Mt Egerton, Victoria). Alf (a Farmer) and Jane married in 1893 in Mt Egerton, Victoria and by 1906 the family had settled in Blackwood WA where Alf was a Farmer. The children attended Scotts Brook State School in Myanup WA. Eldest son Charles Alfred Unstead served in WWII (Service No:W70769).

Rupert's family and friends wrote tributes to his memory in the WA newspapers, including one by 'his sincere friends Elsie and Alma Doust of Spring Hill, Bridgetown 'A loving tribute to the memory of Private Rupert Unstead, who gave his life for his country about September 18, 1917, aged 22 years.

Killed at the front, what a noble end,

He died his country to defend;

He rose responsive to the call,

and died a hero, loved by all.'

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