Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

13/11/1916

Date of Discharge

15/11/1919

Place of Enlistment

Sydney Showground, NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

30/10/1882

Place of Birth

Ginninderra ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Glen Innes NSW (previously Gungahlin ACT)

Occupation

Sawyer

Next of Kin

Gladys Gillespie (daughter), Barney Hill via Glen Innes NSW

Service Number

2804

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

35 Battalion AIF

Gillespie was the younger brother of Robert Cox Gillespie and a cousin of Ted Shumack. Another brother was killed in action during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Their father selected land near Oak Hill in Ginninderra, known as 'Fern Valley', but they left the district for Glen Innes in March 1883. Gillespie was a widower when he enlisted and he embarked from Sydney in November 1916. He served with the 35th Battalion from July 1917 in Belgium but soon after was buried by a shell explosion and injured his back. As a result Gillespie returned to Australia in July 1918 for discharge. He moved to the Maryborough district in Queensland where he died on 1 April 1951.

Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, weight 154 pounds, chest 35-38 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Catholic, tattoo on the inside of his right arm, scar inside of left ankle.

Neil Gillespie, 'History of a Pioneer family of the Limestone Plains', 2005
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 29 April 1919
Glen Innes Examiner - 20 May 1918
Maryborough Chronicle - 3 April 1951