Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born in Adelaide on the 15th April, 1904, Laurence soon earned the nick-name ‘Snook’. He married Hazel Doreen with the two living in Gawler, an area which regularly conducted race meetings, including hurdles, Steeple Chase, Handicap and flat races and was also a place to see and be seen. Laurie acted as a Bookmaker’s Clerk collecting wagers from punters, meticulously recording these transactions, and paying out winnings to successful clients. Hazel and Laurie had two children, Bob and Beverley.
However, with the outbreak of WWII 36-year-old Laurie was one of the early enlistees in Adelaide on the 24th June 1940 where he was given the number SX6659. He was initially allocated to the 2/8th Field ambulance but quickly joined the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. His early training was at Wayville, now the site of the Royal Agricultural Show. Unfortunately, he suffered lower back pain, lumbago, for which he was treated before returning to train with other new enlistees.
In Gawler in October a Valedictory evening was held in the Forester’s Hall where Laurie was one of six enlistees who were honoured. Four of his fellow men were also from the 2/48th Battalion, including Captain Donald Dawkins SX10192, six-foot-tall Albert William Squire SX7930, known as ‘Tiny’ and Frank Pearson, SX7056. The fifth soldier was Noel Johnstone SX4174 in the 2/7th. The Mayor and other speakers from the RSL and Council spoke in praise of the young men before each soldier was given gifts of wallets and pencils with which to write home.
Following pre-embarkation leave spent with his family, Laurence sailed on the Stratheden on the 7th November 1940, arriving on the 19th December 1940 where the Battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica to enable the men to undertake regular army duties and to quickly adapt to the locals and local conditions. The new soldiers were soon involved in intense conflicts where the reputation of the 2/48th Battalion for being the most highly decorated but decimated battalion was earned. Laurence was to become one of the famed Rats of Tobruk.
Soon after arriving, in April pamphlets were dropped, encouraging the troops to ‘surrender their arms’, a suggestion derided by the men. By early July, Laurence was noted as being wounded in action, with concussion, a lacerated scalp and bruising to his back. He and Fred Wooldridge SX6880, from Yacka and in the 2/48th were both listed in the Chronicle as being wounded in action. They spent the next few months being treated for their injuries. At the time, the 2/48th Battalion had relieved the 2/1st Pioneer Battalion in the Salient. In Tobruk to Tarakan, John Glenn described how the men were ‘continually harassed by enemy artillery, mortars and machine guns, so that movement by day was absolutely impossible. He described how the night patrols would crawl forward in search of mines and booby traps. ‘The traps that were dreaded most was the “jumping jack” mine, with its three prongs protruding from the sand waiting for a victim to touch a prong, whereupon a primary charge would shoot a 9 lb mine with all its shrapnel to about chest high before it burst.’
For Laurie, details of his wounding were not documented, but on further investigation his injuries were reported as being accidental. The Gawler Bunyip that month carried a report that his wife Hazel ‘has received notification thit her husband, Pte. Laurie (Snook) Day, has been accidentally injured. Laurie enlisted in June 1940 and went abroad in November. He has an elder brother in the A.I.F., and a younger brother in the R.A-A.F. He has two children.’
Laurie received intensive treatment over the ensuing months but soon contracted bronchitis. By early ’42 probably because of his head injury, he was classified as being fit for duties which did not involve field formations. Eventually in April that year, Laurie was able to leave the Middle East, returning to South Australia. He was then transferred to the depot Battalion but within a month had contracted gastroenteritis. Over May, Laurie was on extended sick leave because of his injury, which inevitably resulted in his discharge in July ’42. By this stage Hazel and the children had moved from Gawler to Glenelg to support Laurie.
Aged 52, (50 on his headstone), Laurence died on the 9th August 1956 and is buried at Centennial Park, Pasadena, remembered by Hazel and the children.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.