Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Sapper Desmond Patrick Thrupp (Service No:QX32137) enlisted in the AIF on 11 May 1942 as a Private and was attached to 15 and 21 Infantry Training Battalions - classified Fitter. Sapper Thrupp was attached to 13 Australian Workshop and Park Coy, completing two Tours in New Guinea (Lae: 20 October 1944 to 19 November 1944 and 21 January 1945 to 4 October 1945). Sapper Thrupp was attached to 13 Australian Workshop and Park Coy at Discharge on 15 October 1945.

Des was born in Kilcoy, QLD in 1920, second of three children of Mervin Reginald Thrupp (b1901 in Surat, QLD) and his first wife Julia Murtagh (b1901 in Inglewood, QLD). Mervin (a Labourer) and Julia married in 1920 in Brisbane, and settled in Kilcoy, where they raised their family and Mervin worked as a Labourer. Following Julia's death in 1927, Mervin moved to Brisbane and worked as a Mill Hand, before returning to Kilcoy where, in 1934, he married his second wife Chrissie Mary Murison (b1912 at Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast, QLD). Mervin and Chrissie lived in Kilcoy, and briefly at Somerset Dam in Esk, where Mervin was a Labourer.

Des was working as a Labourer in Childers when he enlisted in the AIF in 1942 in Brisbane - the same year he married Lorna May Terkelson (b1919 in Childers, QLD). Following his Discharge from the Army, Des and Lorna lived in Warwick, where Des was a Sawyer, before Des joined QLD Governemt Railways (QGR) in the early 1950s. Des and Lorna lived in Bundamba, Ipswich and in Cairns, where they raised their family and Des was a Railways Employee. Lorna died in 1981 and Des in 1996.