Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

27/07/1915

Date of Discharge

08/05/1919

Place of Enlistment

Liverpool NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

17/06/1894

Place of Birth

Duntroon ACT

Address (at enlistment)

'The Springs' via Captains Flat NSW (previously Duntroon ACT)

School(s) Attended

Captains Flat School

Occupation

Wool classer

Next of Kin

Mary Agnes Tully (mother), 'The Springs' via Molonglo NSW

Service Number

3959

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

2 Battalion AIF

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Bungendore War Memorial arch, Gibraltar Street, Bungendore
Roll of Honour at St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Lowe Street, Queanbeyan NSW

David Tully was born at 'Duntroon', where his father was station manager, and lived there until 1903 and then at the family property 'The Springs' near Captains Flat. Before the war he studied wool classing at Sydney Technical College. In July 1915 he enlisted and served with the 2nd Battalion from May to November 1916 in France during which time his unit fought at Pozieres, Mouquet Farm and Flers. He was then treated for trench feet and attended the Divisional School, not rejoining the 2nd Battalion until the end of February 1917. In April 1917 the 2nd Battalion attacked Hermies and in May 1917 fought in the Second Battle of Bullecourt. Tully spent the latter part of 1917 in hospital in England. In April and May 1918 the 2nd Battalion was at Strazeele, near the French-Belgian border, when Tully was wounded in the left elbow. He did not see action again, returning to Australia in March 1919 and was discharged medically unfit.

In October 1920 Tully succesfully applied for a soldier settler's block in the Territory. Block 52A Belconnen (580 acres), on the northern banks of the Molonglo River at Coppins Crossing, was his sixth preference but nonetheless it became the cornerstone of his grazing interests in the ACT. By 1928 he had over 1200 acres on both sides of the Molonglo. He apparently named his property 'Netley' after the town near Southampton in England where he was treated in hospital in 1918. Tully became an executive committee member of the Federal Territory Lessees Association and married Una Bellamy, a nurse at the Canberra Community Hospital, in 1935. He sold his holdings in 1942 and the family moved to Kingston where he ran a sawmill. Around 1951 he sold his home and became manager of 'Glenwood', a property near Hall. During the late 1950s he began to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and spent time in a Veterans' hospital in Sydney and in Kenmore Hospital near Goulburn. Jack Tully, his older brother, then cared for him before Tully entered the War Veterans' home at Narrabeen in Sydney.

While in hospital in Netley, Tully had developed a passion for flowers, in particular roses. After moving to Wellington, in country New South Wales, in 1970 Tully became known as the 'little flowerman'. He died on 29 October 1972 at Bundawalla Hospital in Wellington. His ashes were spread by his children "above the crossing where my garden used to be on the Molonglo River at Coppins Crossing."

Description - height 5 feet 6½ inches, weight 151 pounds, chest 35-37½ inches, dark complexion, hazel eyes, brown hair, Presbyterian.

Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Daphne Duckett & Margaret Robson 'Shepherds' Journey: Tully Family History', 2000 (pp. 143, 144)
St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church records (Canberra & District Historical Society card file)
ArchivesACT, 'Repat & Rabbits - WW1 Soldier Settlement in the ACT', http://www.archives.act.gov.au/repatandrabbits
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Queanbeyan Age - 24 August 1915, 17 October 1916
The Canberra Times - 10 February 1927, 8 May 1935, 17 October 1941, 17 February 1942, 12 June 1948, 9 May 1950
Sydney Morning Herald - 1 November 1972
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)