TRAYNOR, William John

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Notes
  5. Sources

Service Details

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

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Place of Birth
Widnes, England
Address (at enlistment)
Duntroon ACT
Occupation
Messman

Unit and Rank Details

Final Unit
Royal Army Service Corps (British Army)

Notes

Jack Traynor arrived in Australia aboard the SS Orion in 1911 and moved shortly afterwards to the Canberra district where he worked in a garage. Just before the naming ceremony for Canberra in March 1913 he obtained a job at the Royal Military College, Duntroon as a steward. When war broke out he left Canberra to serve in the British Army. He was known as an entertainer, dressing up at night in costumes and clown suits and entertaining the troops with songs and monologues. During the return journey by ship to Australia in 1919, Traynor met Kathleen McDonnell and they married in Sydney the next year. Together they lived in Kingston and raised their children. He joined the Department of the Interior in 1920 as one of the first three bus drivers in Canberra and is credited with having devised the city's first bus timetable. After retiring in December 1953 as a traffic inspector with the Transport Section of the Department of Interior, he went to work at the Census Office. Traynor died on 28 March 1955 at the Canberra Community Hospital and is buried in Woden Cemetery. His son Kevin served in World War 2.

Sources

Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
Peter Procter, 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan', Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001 (p.317)
Canberra Stories Group, 'Settlers' Stories: Why they came and settled in Canberra', 2000 (pp. 84-89)
The Canberra Times - 29 March 1955
Queanbeyan Age - 30 June 1914, 4 August 1914, 27 July 1920

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