Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

26/07/1916

Date of Discharge

14/02/1919

Place of Enlistment

Charleville, Queensland

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Robert Charles Gillespie

Date of Birth

28/04/1874

Place of Birth

Ginninderra ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Morven, Queensland (previously Gungahlin ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Robert Gillespie (father), Glen Innes NSW

Service Number

3180

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

49 Battalion AIF

Gillespie was the older brother of Alfred James Gillespie and a cousin of Ted Shumack. Their father selected land near Oak Hill in Ginninderra (Gungahlin), known as 'Fern Valley', but they left the district for Glen Innes in March 1883. Gillespie embarked for overseas with the 8th reinforcements to the 49th Battalion in December 1916 and served with that unit in Belgium from July 1917. The 49th fought at Polygon Wood and in the Passchendaele sector during September and October 1917 when Gillespie was hospitalised with trench feet. He did not return to the frontline but was repatriated to Australia in June 1918 and discharged on 14 February 1919. A newspaper report suggests that on his way home he had both legs amputated though his service file does not state it. Before enlisting Gillespie had moved to the Morven district near Charleville in western Queensland. After the war he became a grazier at 'Lilyvale' near Morven but at the time of his death in June 1948 Gillespie was living in Upper Roma Street in Brisbane. By then he was known as Robert Charles Gillespie. He was buried in Lutwyche Cemetery in Brisbane.

Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, weight 210 pounds, chest 39-41 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Presbyterian.

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
Courier Mail (Brisbane) - 22 June 1948
The Charleville Times - 29 October 1948