Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

14/08/1914

Date of Discharge

31/01/1916

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

06/03/1893

Place of Birth

Elsternwick, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

5 Battalion Machine Gun Section AIF

Mentioned in Despatches (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No.12; page 156, position 93)

Born on 6 March 1893 at Elsternwick in Victoria, George Capes entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon with the first intake of cadets on 22 June 1911. He graduated early from RMC, along with his classmates, on 14 August 1914. Appointed as a Lieutenant in the 5th Battalion, he embarked for Egypt in October 1914. Shortly before the landing on Gallipoli he was appointed as the 5th Battalion's Machine Gun Officer. He landed on 25 April 1915 on Gallipoli and soon found himself near Owen’s Gully on the edge of Lone Pine. In early May his battalion was sent to Cape Helles to assist the British and French and it was there that Capes was severely wounded in the right arm and thigh during the Battle of Krithia on the night of 8 May 1915. After treatment in Egypt he returned to Australia and was appointed to the staff of RMC, acting as Adjutant from 1916 to 1920. In 1928 he was again posted to RMC and commanded the Corps of Staff Cadets. He spent two years in China and Japan before joining the Melbourne Herald as a journalist in 1933. Capes was killed when hit by a train while walking along the tracks at East Camberwell on 4 March 1935.

Description - height 6 feet 1¾ inches, weight 161 pounds, chest 34-37 inches, Church of England.

Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. I p.494, Vol. II p.49(n))
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Alexander J. McGilvray, 'The Hallowed High Adventure', 1973 (p.58)
Age (Melbourne) - 8 March 1935
The Duntroon Society, ‘The First Class’, Newsletter 2/2011
AWM Honours & Awards
AWM Collections Record : A03182
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial