KOOREY, Kelvin Norman
Service Number: | NX18470 |
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Enlisted: | 29 May 1940, Paddington, New South Wales |
Last Rank: | Private |
Last Unit: | 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion |
Born: | Ballina, New South Wales, Australia, 17 December 1917 |
Home Town: | Queanbeyan, Queanbeyan, New South Wales |
Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
Occupation: | Storekeeper |
Died: | Natural causes, 1998, place of death not yet discovered |
Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
Memorials: | Queanbeyan & District Honour Roll |
World War 2 Service
29 May 1940: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, NX18470, Paddington, New South Wales | |
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29 May 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, NX18470, 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion | |
30 Jan 1941: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, NX18470, 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion, Libya/North Africa | |
5 Apr 1941: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, NX18470, 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion, "Operation Lustre" Greece 1941 | |
6 Nov 1942: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, NX18470, 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion, Kokoda - Papua | |
25 Mar 1943: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, NX18470, 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion | |
25 Mar 1943: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, NX18470, 2nd/3rd Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Kelvin Norman Koorey's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by John Edwards
'I was lucky with my life' 05 October 2017 by Claire Hunter
After the Second World War, Kelvin Koorey had a saying: “I was unlucky with my money, but I was lucky with my life.” And lucky he was. A bullet left a crease in his helmet in Syria, one passed through the sleeve of his greatcoat in Greece, and a sniper’s bullet hit him in the head and lodged in his jaw at Kokoda.
When he came home, he kept his damaged helmet, along with a patch of his great coat and the bullet from Kokoda, in a box as a sign of his good luck. His son Brian donated the items to the Australian War Memorial, along with a two-up set Kelvin used during the war, and a Japanese fountain pen and watch that Kel’s brother-in-law collected at Kokoda..." - READ MORE LINK (www.awm.gov.au)