PERRY, Joseph

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Fate
  5. Commemoration
  6. Notes
  7. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Army
Conflict
World War I (1914-1918)

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Other Name(s)
Birth surname was Rigby
Place of Birth
Manchester, England
Address (at enlistment)
Duntroon ACT
Occupation
Groom
Next of Kin
Florence Perry (wife)

Unit and Rank Details

Service Number
8961
Final Rank
Sergeant
Final Unit
3 Battalion, Manchester Regiment (British Army)

Fate

Died 3 November 1916, drowned when the S.S. Connemara sunk at the entrance to Carlingford Lough, Ireland

Commemoration

Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton, England

Notes

Joseph Perry's birth name was Rigby but he adopted the surname of his step father after his mother remarried when he was a baby. He married Florence Eckersley at Christ Church, Harpurhey in Manchester, England where their two children were also born. The family migrated to Australia after 1911 and Perry was employed as a groom at the Royal Military College, Duntroon from 15 September 1913 until he enlisted; although he was probably in Canberra by 1912. He was an Imperial Reservist who was mobilised on 12 August 1914 and embarked for England on the Miltiades on 17 October 1914 to join his battalion. The 3rd Manchesters were a reserve unit and were based on the east coast of England at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. Perry was returning from leave on 3 November 1916 when his ship, the S.S. Connemara, sunk at the entrance to Carlingford Lough, Ireland after colliding with another vessel. Perry was drowned and his body was not recovered. His widow, Florence, remarried in 1919.

Sources

Patricia Clarke, 'War Widows of the ACT', http://womenaustralia.info/exhib/widows/perry.html
Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?
National Archives (A206) Volume 9 [Federal Capital (Yass-Canberra district). Copies of correspondence, reports etc subsequent to passing of 'Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909 (NSW)' and 'Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909 (Commonwealth)'] - folio 95, 1913 FCT Census
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Dangerous Seas', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
NAA RecordSearch - Series MT1487/1 (Service records and correspondence concerning Australians serving with other Imperial forces, World War 1)
Queanbeyan Age - 26 November 1912, 31 January 1913, 18 February 1913, 31 March 1913, 10 June 1913, 26 September 1913, 7 November 1913

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