Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From How We Served
 
The final resting place for;- V81821 Staff Sergeant George Ross of Elgin, Scotland and Prahran, Victoria, who had been an ‘Old Contemptable’, having been an original member of the 1st British Expeditionary Force who was embarked for France with the Gordon Highlanders in August 1914.

George would go on to serve throughout the whole of the duration of the First World War in the trenches of Northern France and Flanders and was formally discharged from the British Army in 1919.

Following his re-entry into civilian life, George immigrated out to Australia during the years of peace, and by the start of a Second World War, he was married, and employed as a laborer.

George presented himself for service in the Australian Military Forces on the 26th of October 1939, and now aged 47, he was accepted for fulltime duty within Australia. Initially posted to the 3rd Military District Employment Company, by the end of May 1940, George had been promoted to Staff Sargant and was transferred over to the 2nd Recruit Reception Depot in Melbourne at the end of October of the same year.

Assisting in the training of new recruits who had recently enlisted for Active Service, George would remain on the staff of the 2nd RRD, serving continuously until he was again transferred on the 7th of September 1943. Taken on strength with the Leave and Transit Depot Victorian Lines of Communication, George would again continue to serve continuously until he was evacuated due to sickness on the 18th of January 1945.

Admitted into the 115th Australian General Hospital (Heidelberg), George, who was now deemed seriously ill, would remain under medical care until the 14th of May when he was taken off the seriously ill list and transferred to Stonnington House Convalescent Home.
With his health again worsening, George was returned to the 115th AGH on the 29th of May, and whilst still under treatment he finally succumbed to sickness on the 1st of September 1945. George was aged 52 at the time of his premature death.

Following his passing, Staff Sergeant George Ross, a Scottish veteran of the ‘Great War’, and who had served for the entirety of World War One, and then who had chosen to serve his newly adopted country for the entirety of World War Two, was formally laid to rest within Springvale War Cemetery, Victoria.