Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

02/02/1916

Date of Discharge

09/12/1919

Place of Enlistment

Melbourne, Victoria

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Ballarat, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Kew, Victoria (previously the Bachelor Quarters, Acton)

Occupation

Survey field assistant

Next of Kin

Richard Rail (father), Kew, Victoria

Service Number

5411

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

24 Battalion AIF

Rail worked as a survey field assistant to Robert Rain in the Federal Capital Territory prior to enlisting in February 1916 in Melbourne giving his occupation as "articled field assistant with Department of Home Affairs". He embarked for England in August 1916, serving in France as a Corporal with the 24th Battalion from November 1916. After being treated for mumps Rail served at the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917. He was promoted to temporary Sergeant in July 1917 and received a gun shot wound to the throat during the Battle of Broodseinde in October 1917. He was treated in England before returning to the 24th Battalion on 15 April 1918 near Dernancourt. He left for England in June to attend an Officers Cadet course at Oxford and qualified as a 2nd Lieutenant on 1 January 1919. He returned to his unit in France in February 1919 and was appointed as a Lieutenant in April. Rail returned to Australia in October 1919 before his appointment was terminated on 9 December 1919. After the war he returned to Canberra and during the 1920s resided at the Bachelor Quarters in Acton where he became president of the residents' Mess in 1923. He left Canberra that year to complete his studies for qualification as a surveyor in Victoria. Rail died suddenly in Hughesdale (a suburb of Melbourne), Victoria on 8 February 1964.

Description - height 5 feet 7¼ inches, weight 137 pounds, chest 34-36½ inches, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair, Presbyterian.

National Archives (A207)G1915/33 Rates of Pay - officers, employees Lands & Survey Branch, Federal Territory
National Archives (A361) DSG23/877 RR Rail field assistant, District Survey Office
National Archives (A361) DSG23/700 Bachelor Quarters Main File General Matters
National Archives (A207) G1915/1314 Director Lands & Survey - Removal to Melbourne
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Ann Gugler, 'Builders of Canberra 1909-1929', 1994 (p.59)
Queanbeyan Age - 14 January 1913, 10 May 1921
Age (Melbourne) - 10 February 1964