Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Don was the youngest of Coleman and Ruby Carroll’s six children. He was born at Kilburn, near Islington on the 25th November 1917 having two older sisters, Dorothea and Imelda and three brothers, William, James and Jack. In those days Kilburn was known as Chicago, but the district name officially changed in 1930 (after Kilburn, a London suburb.)
Don’s father, Coleman, worked for the huge employer, South Australian Railways and was also heavily involved as South Ward Councillor on the Enfield Council, from 1929 until ’37.
Don had a ‘colorful’ and expensive youth, including as a 17-year-old labourer not having a number plate on the front of his motor cycle and consequently being fined 5/. with £1 costs. For not having a licence to drive to bike he was also fined 10/. with 10/. costs. The following year he was again convicted for unlawfully using a motor cycle without the consent of the owner. was fined £20, with £15/ costs, in default imprisonment for 21 days as this was his third conviction.
As a 21-year-old, Don continued to ‘push the boundaries’, attracting a further fine £1. with 10/ costs, for offensive behaviour. Just two months later, his 71-year-old father, Colman died on the 1st June ’39, leaving Ruby a widow. Coleman was buried in the Dudley Park Cemetery.

Don worked as a motor mechanic until the outbreak of WWII. His older brother, 34-year-old James Ernest enlisted on the 6th July as SX8206 and was placed in the 27th Infantry battalion. Just days later, 22-year-old Don also enlisted on the 17th and was allocated the number SX9069 and placed in the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. Unfortunately, Don contracted an infection and was placed in isolation before he was able to return to training at Woodside then finally leaving Australia at the start of February ’41, arriving in the Middle East on the 23rd March the following year.
Don chose to engage in unofficial sight-seeing once in the Middle East, forfeiting pay and being confined to barracks for five days. It is possible he was trying to contact his older brother. James’ record was similar to Don’s as he also was Absent Without Leave over December ’41 and similarly served a fortnight in detention. For Don, the heat, dust and primitive conditions contributed to him contracting an upper respiratory tract infection, closely followed by leg infections, sebaceous boils and malaria with the associated high fever.
During the siege of Tobruk in July, enemy activity had been noticed forward of Post S25. John Glenn in Tobruk to Tarakan recorded that ‘Privates Carroll and Windebank carried an 81-mm Italian mortar in during the night and were ready by dawn. The first round was right on the target, and soon the area was obliterated.’
In the meantime, his brother James was again AWL in June ‘42 and served a huge 22 days of detention.
Eventually both brothers returned to Australia, Don in August ’43. By this time James had been charged with desertion from 5/6/42 to 11/2/43 found guilty imprisoned with hard labour for a year. A warrant for his arrest was made in June ’44. Don also continued to ‘march to the beat of his own drum’ with his behaviour, attendance at parade and imbibing too freely. His pay continued to be depleted as did his health while stationed in Australia and New Guinea. Skin conditions and behaviour continued to erupt until his return from Lae and his final discharge on the 26th October ‘45
Don’s love affair with motor bikes had not abated during the war. Four months after being discharged, he was admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with concussion. lacerations. and abrasions, following a fall from his motor cycle in Davis street at Norwood. A further four months after this event, Don was fined £2 10/. with 19/ costs, for having stolen a motor cycle headlamp rim, reflector and two globes, together valued at 15/ from a motor cycle parked in the yard of the Hotel Abattoirs, at Cavan. This had been in retribution for having been refused a drink at the hotel. The event was exacerbated when Don interfered with a car. pulling the electrical wiring from behind the dashboard. For willfully damaging the car Don was fined £1 with £1/13/9 compensation, and 19/ costs. He received the trifecta for then having ridden his motor cycle without lights and fined £1. with 10/ costs. A day to forget.
Habits which were acceptable in Wartime, were illegal once peace was declared. However, this meant little to Don and a group of men who gathered on a block of land at the side of the Hotel Abattoirs to play two-up. Don and his older brother, William, a slaughterman, and the rest of the group were all individually fined. £10 with 10/ costs.

Don also featured in local newspapers in September ’53. He had been involved in rabbit trapping in paddocks near Parafield when he discovered what were thought to be the partial remains of an aborigine, including a skull, a top jaw with several teeth, and several bones, among the rabbit warrens.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion