William James Reginald AIRY

Surname: AIRY

Christian Names: William James Reginald (Reginald)

Date & Place of Birth: 19th May, 1889, Queenscliffe (DOD 23rd July, 1981 (Perth ))

Service Number: 235

Service Unit: 16th Batt

Date & Place of Enlistment: 16th September, 1914 Blackboy Hill Camp WA

Profession prior to Enlistment: Electrician

Date of Return to Aust. & Date of Discharge: 14th November, 1918, Western Australia

Next of Kin (NOK) Address Kingscote, Kangaroo Island

Father: William Airy (1838 – 1894) (Wilhelmina MacDonald?)

Mother: Wilhelmina (Minnie) (nee McDonald) (1853-1919)

Brother(s): William John (Bill) Airy (1881-1960); George Basil Airy (1884-1965)

Sister(s): Ellen Mabel (c1887-1940) married Harold Stirling

Service

Egypt: Yes

Gallipoli:

France: Yes

Other:

Campaign Medals: 1914/15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal

Bravery Awards, Citations, MID:

If Died, Plaque & Scroll received by NOK:

Rank: Private, driver

Kingscote Honour Board Yes

Kingscote Monument

Penneshaw Honour Board Yes

Penneshaw Memorial

KI Connection: Living in W.A., enlisted in W.A. returned to W.A. Born KI, Mother KI

http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=3023529 plus 41 more documents

Birth Index

Given Name(s): William James Reginald

Last Name: AIRY

Birth Date: 1889, May 19

Gender: M

Father: William AIRY

Mother: Williamina MACDONALD

Birth Place/Residence: Queenscliffe

District: Yankalilla

Symbol:

Book/Page: 440/446

https://www.genealogysa.org.au/

Burial record

Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth

From the Islander 18 Mar 2015 http://www.theislanderonline.com.au/story/2953599/private-suffers-from-conditions-on-gallipoli-peninsula/?cs=1903

Private Reginald Airy, Service number 235, was born on Kangaroo Island (Queenscliffe) in 1889 to William and Williamina Airy.

At 25 he was single, an electrician by trade and found himself living a long way from his mother, Mrs L E Williams who was residing in Kingscote at the time. His father, William, had passed away at the Cape Borda telegraph station in 1894 at the age of 56 when Reginald was just five years of age.

At 15, Reginald and a group of friends made page 7 of The Advertiser in 1904 in a story titled “Tin-kettlers Punished - The Kingscote Incident - Backblocks Justice”. Apparently the newly-wed William Turner took considerable exception to the raucous “tin-kettling” and ensuing slight damage to his property. Reginald was cleared of charges as he had turned up after the fact, attracted by the noise. Reading between the lines, 100 years later, Reginald Airy appears to have been a spirited young man when he joined the 16th Battalion D Company on September 16, 1914 at Blackboy Hill WA.

A driver in the Transport Section, he embarked on December 22, 1914 aboard the HMAT Ceramic with 32 officers and 978 other ranked men from Melbourne bound for Gallipoli. Of note, Private Airy stated on his “Attestation of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad” that he served 3 years with the 11th Battalion Perth Infantry prior to joining the 16th Battalion.

An entry in the 16th Battalion War Diary notes: “All ranks embarked thoroughly wet and with symptoms of a great prevalence of influenza”. The men and their equipment were thoroughly saturated after two days of continuous rain in Broadmeadows Victoria. These young men signed up fit and healthy, the best of the best of Australia’s youth only to be sent abroad to face the horrors of war suffering compromised health before their campaign began. 16th Battalion marching through Melbourne in 1914.

Signaller Ellis Silas at ANZAC, Gallipoli wrote: “At nightfall on May 2, the 16th went into attack again up a hill called the Bloody Angle towards Quinn’s Post, and throughout the night they continued to fight and dig trenches. The battalion’s exposure to continual firing made it very dangerous to carry ammunition to them. Again and again volunteers were shot as they scrambled up with heavy cases; others took their places only to fall dead across the boxes they were dragging, or to roll down the steep side of the hill.”

Captain C Longmore, The Old Sixteenth: being a record of the 16th Battalion, AIF, during the Great War 1914-1918, Perth, 1929, wrote: “Near dawn on May 3, the 16th rose out of their trenches to attack the Turkish position about 100 metres away but were seen and met with heavy fire. Their attempt failed and when dawn came their dead ‘lay thickly on the slopes’. During that night, men of the Royal Naval Division had been brought in to reinforce the battalion, but confusion prevailed and communication with the 16th became impossible. Attempts to dig a communication trench through the hill failed and throughout the morning the 16th gradually fell back in twos and threes. At 6 pm the remnants of the battalion were withdrawn. At the landing on April 25, the 16th had been about 1000 strong. Overnight on May 2, they had lost eight officers and 330 men. At roll call on 3 May 3, only nine officers and 290 men answered their names.”

Private Airy suffered in the conditions on the Gallipoli Peninsula, like so many other soldiers. His war service records indicate numerous hospitalisations including influenza and undiagnosed causes of fever and other recurring ailments. These conditions blighted him on and off over the course of his service abroad which spanned from April 1915 to his time in France before embarking for home in September 1918.

Was it the larrikin in Private Airy that saw him “absent without leave” causing him to appear before a Court Martial proceedings? Two days after being discharged from a stint in hospital Private Airy disappeared for 17 days. He was found guilty and sentenced to undergo 36 days detention and a total forfeiture of pay of 71 days. Not to be outdone by the full force of military law, while confined he escaped and was captured only to have an extra sentence imposed, totaling 90 days detention.

On November 28, 1918 Private Airy’s mother wrote to “the officer in charge” to ask of him the whereabouts of her son. Mrs Williams had received a telegram to say Private Airy had arrived in Perth on November 15 and would be “with you in a few days”. Mrs Williams advised he had not arrived and could the officer trace his whereabouts and advise what was detaining him. She goes on to say she is very anxious to know. There is a PS at the bottom of her letter “hope he turns up soon”.

Private Airy must have shown up eventually as on April 13, 1967 he wrote a note to the “War Veterans Home, Western Australia” making an application for his ANZAC Commemorative Medallion.

Kangaroo Island Courier (Kingscote, SA : 1907 - 1951), Saturday 28 December 1918, page 2

Descendants of : William AIRY

Generation 1

1. William AIRY was born 16 Mar 1838 in Bedfordshire, England and died 11 Jul 1894 in Cape Borda, Kangaroo Island, SA. He married Wilhelmina (Minnie) McDONALD. She was born 07 Jan 1853 in Willunga, SA and died 04 Jun 1919 in Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, SA, daughter of William McDONALD and Eleanor THOMPSON.

Other events in the life of William AIRY

Burial: , Kingscote Cemetery, Kangaroo Island, SA

Children of William AIRY and Wilhelmina (Minnie) McDONALD:

i. 2. William AIRY was born ABT 1881

ii. 3. George Basil AIRY was born 29 Oct 1884 in Adelaide, SA and died 14 Jun 1965 in Cowell, SA

iii. 4. Ellen Mabel AIRY was born ABT 1887 and died 12 Dec 1940 in Stirling West, SA

iv. William James Reginald (Reg) AIRY was born 19 May 1889 in Queenscliffe, Kangaroo Island, SA and died 23 Jul 1981 in Perth, WA

Generation 2

2. William AIRY was born ABT 1881. He married Ettie Muriel YOUNG 1906 in Perth, WA. They divorced 1937.

Other events in the life of William AIRY

Military: 1902, Boer War

3. George Basil AIRY was born 29 Oct 1884 in Adelaide, SA and died 14 Jun 1965 in Cowell, SA. He married Ethel Vera STENING 25 Feb 1922 in Cowell, SA. She was born 19 Mar 1894 in Kadina, SA and died 16 Aug 1963 in Utera, SA, daughter of George James STENING and Mary HERBERT.

4. Ellen Mabel AIRY was born ABT 1887 and died 12 Dec 1940 in Stirling West, SA. She married Harold STIRLING 08 Jul 1912 in Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, SA. He was born 06 Mar 1888 in Sturt, SA and died 01 Feb 1973, son of Alfred STIRLING and Mary Ann PARSONS.