Alfred Joseph SPEIGHT

SPEIGHT, Alfred Joseph

Service Number: W1965
Enlisted: 30 January 1941
Last Rank: Able Seaman
Last Unit: Not yet discovered
Born: Carlton, Victoria, Australia, 6 November 1923
Home Town: Williamstown (Vic), Hobsons Bay, Victoria
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Not yet discovered
Died: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 October 1982, aged 58 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne
Memorials:
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World War 2 Service

30 Jan 1941: Enlisted Royal Australian Navy, Able Seaman, W1965
13 Dec 1945: Discharged Royal Australian Navy, Able Seaman, W1965

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Elder of two brothers (Alfred and Gerald) who served in the RAN in WWII; Stoker Alfred Joseph Speight (Service No:W1965) enlisted in the RAN on 30 January 1941. Stoker Speight served with HMAS Cerberus, Doomba, Madava and Landang, and was attached to HMAS Lonsdale at Discharge on 13 December 1945.

Born in Melbourne, Victoria in 1923, Alfred was fourth of five children of Alfred (Alf) Speight (b1889 in Yorkshire, England) and Ada May Elizabeth Pettet (nee Prosser; b1884 in Melbourne, Victoria). Alf was a Boilermaker's Striker in Yorkshire when he immigrated in 1913, arriving in Sydney on board the Zealandic. Alf worked as a Boilermaker in Sydney, in Melbourne in 1914, and was a Boilermake in Sydney in 1916 when he enlisted in the AIF (Private; Service No:6136). Alf and Ada had met in Melbourne in 1914, and following Ada's divorce in 1920, married in Melbourne, where Alf worked as a Labourer. In the late 1920s Alf and Ada moved their family to Bendigo, where Alf was a Railway Employee until the early 1940s when they returned to Melbourne.

Alfred was in Williamstown in 1941 when he enlisted in the Navy, aged seventeen years. Following his Discharge in December 1945, Alfred returned to Melbourne, where he lived with his parents and worked as a Fishmonger. In 1950 he was working as a Fumigator in Melbourne when he married Joyce May Hollingsworth (nee Marsham; b1926 in Melbourne, Victoria). Alfred and Joyce settled in Melbourne, where they raised their family and Alfred (according to the Electoral Rolls) was a Soldier. Joyce died in 1973 and Alfred died in 1982.

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