Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

10/03/1916

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

06/09/1894

Place of Birth

Naas ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Naas ACT

School(s) Attended

Naas Public School

Occupation

Labourer / sheep farmer

Next of Kin

Son of John and Rebecca Gregory of Naas via Tharwa ACT

Burial Place

France 1170 Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery Fouilloy, France in plot 1, row E, grave 6

Service Number

2908

Final Rank

Lance Corporal

Final Unit

18 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action) near Framevillers, France on 11 August 1918 aged 23 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 85, Canberra ACT
Memorial plaque in porch of Christ Church, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan Public School Roll of Honour, Isabella St, Queanbeyan NSW
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
St. Edmund's Anglican Church, Tharwa (memorial window)

Gregory came from the Naas valley and was related to another pioneering family, the Reads. He served with the 18th Battalion in France and Belgium from March 1917 including at the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917 and at the Battle of Menin Road in September 1917. He was wounded twice in gas attacks and was hospitalised with diphtheria in April 1918. Gregory was killed in action on 11 August 1918 at Framevillers near Harbonnieres in France by a piece of shell, which exploded 140 yards away and struck him in the neck. His mate, a Private Nelligen, wrote to Gregory's sister about the shock his death had caused him. "We were always together", he wrote, and "I was dumbfounded at the time to think we were through the thick of it for four days and just when things quietened down" Gregory was killed instantaneously by a stray shell.

Description - height 5 feet 7½ inches, weight 145 pounds, chest 36-39 inches, blue eyes, brown hair, Church of England, physical development rated 'Good'.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
AWM Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Files
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Lyall, Gillespie, 'A Pictorial History of the Read/ Reid Family in Australia 1849-1979'
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.3, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Queanbeyan Age - 25 July 1916, 27 July 1916, 3 September 1918, 20 September 1918, 22 October 1918, 7 December 1918