Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

02/11/1914

Date of Discharge

02/06/1916

Place of Enlistment

Liverpool NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Jack'

Date of Birth

14/10/1895

Place of Birth

Lanyon NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Lanyon Station ACT

School(s) Attended

Tharwa Public School

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Isaac Cregan (father), Lanyon ACT

Service Number

711

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

1 Light Horse Regiment AIF

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Roll of Honor Queanbeyan Public School, Isabella Street, Queanbeyan NSW
Roll of Honour at St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Lowe Street, Queanbeyan NSW

Jack Cregan enlisted in November 1914 and served with the 1st Light Horse Regiment at Gallipoli. He came from Lanyon and served alongside Andy Cunningham whose family owned the property. They landed on Gallipoli on 12 May and were sent to Pope's Hill. On 7 August 1915 the 1st Light Horse attacked Dead Man's Ridge during which Cregan received a shrapnel wound to the right elbow; an injury he carried for the rest of his life. He was hospitalised at Heliopolis before returning home in October 1915 and being discharged on 2 June 1916. For awhile he worked for the Tax Office in Sydney and he returned home and married Mary Gregory (sister of Joseph Gregory) in 1919. In 1920 acquired a soldier settler's block at Lower Freshford (Block 13A) in Tuggeranong (opposite Pine Island) and although he built a house the remoteness of the property from schools for his children saw him surrender the lease in the late 1920s. In the 1950s he was described as "a good-looking man about fifty, obviously very strong but with a bent arm". Jack Cregan died on 30 August 1961 and is buried in Woden Cemetery.

Description - 5 feet 9 inches tall, weight 150 pounds, fair complexion, brown eyes, fair hair, unmarried, Church of England, single, no civil convictions.

Henry Baynton Gullett, 'Good Company, Henry 'Jo' Gullett: horseman, soldier, politician', 1992
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Matthew Higgins, 'A Century of Learning: Tharwa Primary School 1899-1999', Canberra 1999
Lyall Gillespie, 'Canberra 1820-1913', AGPS 1991 (p.96)
Wendy McLennan, 'The Mayo Connection', 1996 (p.194) 
Jenny Horsfield, 'Voices Beyond the Suburbs: the Soldier Settlers of Tuggeranong', 2018
ArchivesACT Repat and Rabbits - https://www.archives.act.gov.au/repatandrabbits/jack_cregan  
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.3, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 5 November 1915, 19 November 1915, 7 March 1916, 20 June 1916, 17 August 1917, 14 January 1919, 30 January 1920
Queanbeyan/ Canberra Advocate - 22 June 1916