Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

15/09/1915

Date of Discharge

14/05/1917

Place of Enlistment

Warwick Farm NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Billy'

Date of Birth

11/06/1897

Place of Birth

Duntroon ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Fitzgerald Street, Waverley NSW (previously Duntroon ACT)

School(s) Attended

Canberra Public School

Occupation

Horse driver

Next of Kin

William Jeffrey (father), Fitzgerald Street, Waverley NSW

Service Number

5128

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

1 Battalion AIF

Billy Jeffrey was born in 1898 at Duntroon, where his father was a gardener, and attended the school near St. John's church; his mother, who died in 1902, is buried in the churchyard there. He served with the 1st Battalion in France from June 1916 but received a severe knee wound at Pozieres in July 1916. He returned to Australia in April 1917 before being discharged on 14 May 1917. Jeffrey lived in Waverley in Sydney after the war and died there on 6 September 1944 aged 47 years. He is buried in Botany Cemetery (PAA - Presbyterian FM AA - 77).

Description - height 5 feet 3½ inches, weight 99 pounds, chest 33-34 inches, fresh complexion, grey eyes, dark hair, Church of England, scar on left knee.

Students roll, Schoolhouse Museum, St John's, Reid
Jean Salisbury, 'Canberra: St. John's Churchyard 1844-1998', Canberra 2000
Lyall Gillespie, 'Early Education and Schools in the Canberra Region' (p.22 school photo 1905), 1999
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Sydney Morning Herald - 7 September 1944
Botany Cemetery - www.esmp.net.au/search-map-facility/cemetery-search.aspx