Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

15/08/1914

Date of Discharge

17/07/1921

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

15/11/1889

Place of Birth

London, England

Address (at enlistment)

Ashfield NSW (previously Acton ACT)

Occupation

Steward

Next of Kin

Miss P. Killard (friend), Duntroon and later his wife, Mrs. Edith Maud Timpson, Carlisle, England

Service Number

8719

Final Rank

Corporal

Final Unit

AN&MEF

Reginald Timpson was an Englishman employed as a steward at the Bachelor Quarters in Acton. He was an Imperial Army Reservist with A Company, 2nd Border Regiment and a foundation member of the Canberra Rifle Club. Timpson was called up on 15 August 1914 and embarked on Sydney in October 1914 on the Miltiades. He served as a Sergeant with the 2nd Border Regiment (British Army) but was wounded by gas and shell shock. He married in England but returned to Australia and worked at the Molonglo Internment Camp (in modern day Fyshwick). In 1918 he applied for free passage for his wife and child to join him in Australia though by the time Timpson enlisted on 29 September 1920 in the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force he was separated from his wife. He served in Rabaul as an honorary Corporal and then as Police Master at Kokopo. Timpson returned to Australia in June 1921 and was discharged on 17 July 1921 in Sydney.

Description - height 5 feet 8¾ inches, weight 141 pounds, chest 36-38 inches, fresh complexion, blue eyes, fair hair, Church of England.

National Archives (A2487)1921/2628 Various applications for free passage to Australia for wives, children and fiancees of returned soldiers
Alan Foskett, 'The Molonglo Mystery', 2006
Queanbeyan/ Canberra Advocate - 25 May 1916
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)