Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Murray David Greig was born on the 16th of June 1912 at Wilmington, South Australia, the eldest of 8 children of David Ernest and Edith Annie Elizabeth (nee Rye) Greig, grazier of Melrose.

Murray was 28 years of age when he enlisted on the 27th of July 1940, at Adelaide. On his Attestaion Form he listed his trade qualifications as  mechanic.  His army number of SX9798 indicated he was in the first ten thousand to enlist from South Australia.

Murray was initially sent to the 2/27th Infantry Battalion but was transferred and trained as a fitter in the 8th Division Ammunition Subpark, which set sail for Singapore while Murray was in the camp hospital (Wayville) with a carbuncle. This certainly proved to be a stroke of luck on his part, as his unit, along with 15,000 other Diggers, became POWs of the Japanese at the Fall of Singapore on 15th of Feb, 1942 and were sent to Changi, Sandakan and the Thai-Burma Railway. 

He was subsequently transferred to the 2nd Armoured Brigade  Workshop, which had been raised in August of 1941, as part of the 2nd Armoured Brigade.  Between 1941 and May 1942, the 2ABW was based at Puckpunyal Victoria, before moving to Greta and then to Wee Waa (NSW) in July for full scale manoeuvres with 1 Armoured Division. They then moved to Murgon (Qld) at the beginning of  1943,  The regiment was initially equipped with Bren gun carriers, then M3 Grant medium tanks and M3 Stuart light tanks

In February  1943, the 2/9th moved to Singleton, NSW, as part of the newly formed 4th Armoured Brigade Group. In September of 1943, 4 Armoured Brigade Workshop was split up, and Murray joined the 2/9th Armoured Regiment Workshop.

In May 1944, the unit moved to the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland. In March of 1944 the Grant tanks had been replaced with British built Matilda tanks. Up to this point of time the regiment had not seen action.  

In March 1945 the regiment finally received orders to prepare for overseas service. Moving to Cairns, Queensland, C Squadron sailed for Morotai and the rest of the regiment followed in April. The regiment's ultimate destination, however, was Borneo, and Operation Oboe, the aim being to reoocupy areas of Borneo and the DutchEast Indies.  

On the 11th of July 1945, Murray boarded Tank Landing Ship  LST 574 to Morotai, where he served a total of 276 days, until the war finished and he was demobilised. He was discharged from the Army on the 24th of January 1946, at Hampstead, South Australia, having served a total of 2008 days in the AIF.

He married Bernice May Joy on the 27th of November 1946. After a period share farming with his brother Gordon, and some time in the South East of the state working under the Land Development Enterprise, Murray and Bernice bought land at Meningie in 1956, where they farmed until 1972. As a result of several heart attacks, and with their children pursuing careers outside of farming, Murray sold up, and he and Beryl purchased a house in Meningie to see out their retirement.

Murray passed away on the 5th of June 1995, aged 82 years, and is interred at Meningie Cemetery, South Australia, Grave 1012.

Excerpt from "Diggers From the Dust" (2018) Di Barrie and Andrew Barrie.