Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

R Townsend on the Wooroolin WW11 Honour Board has been a real mystery. I am 99% sure it is Royal Townsend from a newspaper article in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate Saturday 18 September 1943 - Page 3 which states: Just before lunch I saw Private Royal Townsend, of Kingaroy (Q.), jauntily riding a bicycle down the track towards the front. Later I saw Townsend again as I was going forward. His face was begrimed and his clothes black with perspiration and mud.

Royal Townsend enlisted in the Australian Army on 5 March 1941 at Brisbane. He gave his birth place as Dublin, Ireland. Just 3 months after joining the army he married Frances Gwendolline McCarry in Brisbane. She was originally from Mitchell and her father died in Wondai in 1947!

Royal’s army records are not available on the NAA website and I have not found a single electoral roll for him. The WW11 Nominal Roll states that Royal was in the 2/31 BN (5 REINFS). The article mentioned above and written by Mervyn Weston, with the Australian Airborne Forces West of Lae confirmed he was in New Guinea in 1943 and the 2/13 Battalion was definitely there then.

The AWM website states that the 2/31 Battalion was the first battalion to re-enter Kokoda in Nov 1942, and played a key role in smashing the last Japanese defensive position on the trail at Gorari. After home leave the 2/31st returned to Port Moresby in Jul 1943 in preparation for the 25th Brigade's next operation - the advance on the Japanese base at Lae, in New Guinea then was principally engaged in patrol actions in the Ramu Valley and the foothills of the Finisterre Range until the end of the year. The battalion also fought at Balikpapan.

Royal Townsend married Frances McCarry at Brisbane not long after he joined the army. Her father is buried at Wondai so it is probably that they met when he lived at Kingaroy/Wooroolin.

Royal was discharged on 10 Nov 1944.
Lest We Forget