Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Roy Quail was born 25 Jul 1902 at Brisbane, the 2nd of 5 children of Tom & Grace Quail. The Quail family, Tom, Grace, Will, Roy, Ruby and Bert, arrived in Wooroolin about 1912 in response to an advertisement by Dan Dalton in the Courier Mail of 13 May 1912 for a steady Blacksmith. Tom and his son Will, worked at the Blacksmith which was in Short St near to the current Butchers Café.
Roy was 11 years old and still of school age but he does not seem to be registered at Wooroolin School Register. He is included in a photo, courtesy Joyce Horne, taken about 1914 for the Wooroolin World War Concert arranged by Queenie Bond. His sister Annie was born on 31 Aug 1915 and a month later, on 30 Sep 1915, Roy’s father joined the Australian Army as a “Shoe Smith”. He was sent to France finally returning home early 1918. A wonderful photo of the family taken when Tom joined the Army has been shared by his Great Granddaughter Jo Rendle. How wonderful to have this memory. https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/records/269885/1
Roy was active sports person. There are several newspaper articles on Trove about him playing Football, Tennis & Golf as well as being on committees for these sports as Treasurer.
During the 1920’s Roy worked for the QN Bank at Wooroolin on the corner of Main & Frederick St. We are fortunate to have a photo of him taken about 1925 in the garden of the Bank with other staff members and in the background is the Grand Hotel still in use today.
On 15 Feb 1930 Roy married Alice Jessen at St Andrews Church, Wooroolin. Alice was the sister of my Grandma Lizzie Jones. The couple moved to Lismore, NSW and Roy continued to work as a Bank Clerk. In 1933 they moved to Kandanga where Roy was promoted to Bank Manager and then to Esk in 1936. Roy’s wife, Alice, died of cancer in 1940 and was buried at Memerambi Cemetery.
Roy joined the Australian Army on 14 Mar 1941 and joined the 2/15 Aust Infantry Battalion. So now we have 5 men on the Wooroolin WW11 Honour Board that served in 2/15 – Roy, Don Miller, Col Grayson, Charlie Mitchell (POW) & Les Pedersen – Wonder if they ever met each other during service as they all joined at separate times.
Roy served in the Middle East and Borneo per his army records which are available on the NAA website. Whilst in the Middle East he sent picture postcards to his sister-in- law Lizzie jones and whilst in Borneo he was awarded a “Mention in Despatched (MID)”. Roy served as one of the “Rats of Tobruk”, Bardia , Crete, and Kokoda in New Guinea in the 2nd /15th.
The story of the 2/15 available on the Australian War Memorial website. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U56058
Roy was discharged from the army on 3 Jan 1946 and returned to the banking industry. He worked in various places around Qld and married Ellen (Nell) Steele in 1952.
Roy died in 1984 and is remembered at Allambe Memorial Park, Nerang. He is probably honoured at Queensland Garden of Remembrance at Bridgeman Downs.
Lest We Forget