BERECRY, Matthew
| Service Number: | 2829 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 February 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 5th Field Ambulance |
| Born: | Paddington, New South Wales, Australia, 25 March 1890 |
| Home Town: | North Sydney, North Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Painter and Decorator |
| Died: | Concord, New South Wales, Australia, 9 June 1953, aged 63 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Macquarie Park Cemetery & Crematorium, North Ryde, New South Wales |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 20 Feb 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2829, 5th Field Ambulance | |
|---|---|---|
| 31 May 1915: | Involvement Private, 2829, 5th Field Ambulance, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '22' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ajana embarkation_ship_number: A31 public_note: '' | |
| 31 May 1915: | Embarked Private, 2829, 5th Field Ambulance, HMAT Ajana, Sydney | |
| 5 Oct 1918: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 2829, Gassed in action bearing a stretcher patient from the field during battle - becoming a casualty evacuation himself! | |
| 27 Jun 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 2829, 5th Field Ambulance, Discharged at Sydney NSW ‘in consequence of termination of period of enlistment’ having been accredited with four years and 129 days service including three years and 306 days service abroad. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Brian Hancock
Civilian Life
Matthew Patrick (Matt) Berecry was born in Paddington, NSW, the fifth child of Bryan (Bernard) Berecry and Maria (née Maraspen). His father was a native of County Tipperary, Ireland and had arrived in the colony of New South Wales with his parents and younger siblings as a child. His mother was born in Sydney. As a young man, Matt was a member of a local sailing club and played cricket for the Gordon club and Rugby Union. (His brother Tom Berecry, a player with the North Sydney Bears, also played as winger for Australasian Rugby League team in the 1911-1912 international tour of England.)
Enlistment
Prior to his enlistment at Liverpool in 1915, Matt had been employed for five years as an apprentice painter by Mr W. L. Mawson of Lithgow, NSW. He and his younger brother Bryan Berecry enlisted together on the same day. Matt told his family that he didn’t want to kill anyone but that wished to serve his country in the war. He was allocated as a stretcher bearer to the 5th (Australian) Field Ambulance, an Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) unit attached to 5th Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, AIF.
On Active Duty
Private Matthew Berecry served with his unit at Gallipoli where he arrived in August 1915. He was evacuated sick on 12 December 1915. He was hospitalised in Egypt and departed Alexandria, Egypt with his unit on 17 March 1916 for France where he served with his unit on the Western Front in the following years. On 3 March 1919 with hundreds of other returning Australian World War One veterans he departed England aboard HMAT ‘Euripides’ and disembarked in Sydney on 25 April 1919.
The Last Day
The battle of Montbrehain in the Somme Valley, France was fought on 5 October 1918 as part of a broader assault on German trenches known as the Beaurevoir system. Only weeks before the Armistice, it was the last day on which Australian Infantry of the AIF participated in action on the Western Front. On this day Private Matthew Berecry was one of a party of four stretcher bearers carrying a wounded British Officer from the field when the stretcher party was overcome by a cloud of mustard gas. The four men and the patient only had four gas masks between the five persons - Private Berecry gave his mask to one other of the party and said, ‘You carry this bloke in and I’ll make a dash for It’. He ran towards the medical station; however, having inhaled the gas he collapsed unconscious as he arrived there. His eyes and lungs were badly affected and he needed immediate medial treatment and he was evacuated to hospital at Rouen and then to sucessive hospitals in England.