Billy (Dit) FORSTER

Billy (Dit) FORSTER Update Details

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FORSTER, Billy

Service Number:	NX20769
Enlisted:	22 May 1940
Last Rank:	Lieutenant
Last Unit:	2nd/17th Infantry Battalion
Born:	South Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 10 July 1917
Home Town:	Mosman, Municipality of Mosman, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Audit Clerk
Died:	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 23 December 1976, aged 59 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Not yet discovered
Memorials:

World War 2 Service

22 May 1940:	Enlisted NX20769
22 May 1940:	Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Lieutenant, NX20769, 2nd/17th Infantry Battalion
4 Sep 1943:	Involvement Lieutenant, NX20769, 2nd/17th Infantry Battalion, New Guinea - Huon Peninsula / Markham and Ramu Valley /Finisterre Ranges Campaigns, WIA (Signals Officer)
23 Jun 1945:	Involvement Lieutenant, NX20769, 2nd/17th Infantry Battalion, Borneo - Operation Oboe July - August 1945
10 Dec 1945:	Discharged Lieutenant, NX20769, 2nd/17th Infantry Battalion
10 Dec 1945:	Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Lieutenant, NX20769, 2nd/17th Infantry Battalion
Date unknown:	Involvement Lieutenant, NX20769, 2nd/17th Infantry Battalion

Help us honour Billy Forster's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Jeffrey Crisdale

2/17 Bn Campaign - Borneo (OC 1 Platoon)

Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Billy was one of five children of William Ellery Forster (b1888 in Melbourne, Victoria) and Mary Ross (b1888 in Melbourne, Victoria). William (a Clerk) and Mary married in 1911 in Adelaide, South Australia and had settled in Perth WA by 1914. William worked as a Warehouseman in Perth before moving the family to Melbourne, Victoria in the early 1940s, where he was a Shoe Manufacturer and Retailer.

Billy was an Audit Clerk in Sydney NSW when he enlisted in the ACMF in November 1939 (Private; Service No:524087). He Discharged in 1940 to enlist in the AIF (Corporal - Lieutenant; Service No:NX20769)with 2/17 Infantry Battalion. Billy served in the Middle East (19 October 1940 - 18 February 1943), New Guinea (1 August 1943 - 10 March 1944) and Borneo (6 May 1945 - 30 October 1945). He was WiA in New Guinea - GSW right arm, and Discharged in December 1945.

In December 1946 Billy married Ethel Daphne O'Mara (b1916 in Perth, WA) in Perth, WA - Ethel was a Clerk Typist and had served in the AAWS (Corporal; Service No:W45647) in WWII. The couple had moved to Melbourne, Victoria by 1949 and Billy worked as a Secretary and Accountant. He died in 1976 and Ethel in 1981.

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