Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

In His Father's Footsteps

Ray’s father, Edgar Mattinson Clements had been a farm labourer and member of the Senior Cadets when WWI broke out. His immediate reaction was to enlist in November of 1916, stating that he was 18 years old. However, it was later found that Edgar had only just turned 16 which attracted paper work, including a personal declaration of his true age and also his parent’s approval, which was given by his father in a written letter. Not unexpectedly, the young Edgar attracted quite a harsh punishment of 14 days for laughing and chatting when the squad was called to Attention while on Parade – and this before heading over to France with the 48th Battalion! Edgar was eventually invalided home having been wounded at Passchendale, and discharged on the 19th March 1919. Ray was soon born in Largs Bay just prior to Christmas, on the 13th December 1919.

Ray’s parents, Helena and Edgar eventually had four other children, Ron, Edgar, Rita and June, all of whom attended the local Queenstown school at Alberton. Typically, Ray was regularly involved in sport, then post school worked at the Woodville Holden Factory as a machine shop operator. However, the Depression years of the 30’s caused a downturn in production by Holden and this may have influenced Ray’s choice to enlist.

He was just 20, but of a legal aged compared to his father, when Ray enlisted to serve in WWII on the 6th July 1940, becoming SX8231 in the Infantry. After preliminary training, Ray was part of the contingent which embarked on the Stratheden in November ’40 to be allocated to the newly formed 2/48th Battalion, a move of which Ray was especially proud as his father, Edgar had served in WWI in the First 48th Battalion. Ray’s Battalion landed in the Middle East and were almost immediately involved in the fierce fighting.

By May ‘41 Ray received a gunshot wound with shrapnel to his left arm, foot and back and was evacuated to the Australian General Hospital before being assessed as medically unfit and returned to Australia via the Hospital Ship ‘1st Netherlands’. He spent some time in the Repatriation Hospital with a compound fracture of his arm and gunshot wounds, continuing to be hospitalised with others returning from Tobruk and the Middle East. He spent some time at Kapara Convalescent Home in Glenelg, run by the Red Cross as a home for wounded soldiers and which re-opened for that purpose in July of 1940.

His return and that of other wounded men from Tobruk was extensively covered by the newspapers of the day with fellow soldiers determinedly claiming in headlines ‘They Will Never Take Tobruk’.  The ‘Adelaide Advertiser’ reported “This epitomises the sentiments of soldiers who have returned from the Libyan campaign. These men said that the morale of the South Australians, and of the other defenders was splendidly high, and enemy pamphlets persuasively worded, calling on them to surrender were laughed to scorn. Life was hard in Tobruk, they said, but vicious dive-bombing, deadly sniping and stiffened attacks on the outer perimeter were being withstood and beaten off time and again.” Ray was also interviewed and told how he had “spent four months in a military hospital near Suez. During this time, he said, they were bombed continuously several times a week, and, although some or the wards had been hit it was remarkable that the whole hospital was not blown to bits. He agreed with other soldiers that dive-bombing was the most terrifying experience of all. On the ships at Suez, and along the vital parts of the canal, it was necessary to fly balloon barrages as in London.” Disturbingly the injured men commented that a captured German pilot admitted that he had had specific instructions to bomb hospital ships.

Ray Married Shirley Gladys in November 1941. Soon after, Ray was one of 80 invalided diggers, 60 on foot and 20 in hospital blue in cars, who paraded through the streets of Adelaide on Wednesday 19th November. They eventually passed North Terrace to the State War Memorial in honour of Tobruk. The parade was of such importance that the noon call on the Adelaide Stock Exchange was postponed until 12.20 p.m. so that brokers and operators could witness the march. The local ‘News’ reported that “Women clapped and cheered. Some wept. Children waved handkerchiefs and flags, and men flourished hats and cheered the men who have come back. A crowd of 2,000 occupying every foot of space about the memorial, awaited the diggers after their triumphal parade. Just before they turned into the garden in front of the memorial the soldiers were caught up in streamers thrown by girls in North Terrace. The crowd almost mobbed the diggers as they sat down on the lawn, but when reminded that many of the men were still under treatment, they stood back readily. An elderly woman figured in a touching scene. She unwrapped a big bunch of roses, and, kissing each bloom, threw them among the diggers. The men picked them up with smiles of gratitude and pinned them to their tunics or carried them in their hands. The diggers themselves were moved by the warmth of the reception, which was really Adelaide's first public welcome to returned men.”

With Ray’s discharge on the 27th April 42, his official war was over. He and Shirley started a family, eventually having seven children, Carol, Paul, Michael, Kathy, Fran, Damien and Adam.

For his service, Ray was awarded the 1939/45 Star, African Star, Defence Medal, War Medal and ASM.

Aged 59 Ray’s father Edgar died in July of 1959 and is remembered at the West Terrace cemetery. Ray who lived to be 52, died on the 7th June 1973. A memorial plaque to him is at Centennial Park at Passadena. His mother, Helena out-lived her husband and son to be 93 years old when she died on the 23rd June 1996. Her remains are at Centennial Park.

Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.

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