Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 17/08/1914
- Place of Enlistment
- Albert Park, Victoria
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 19/12/1895
- Place of Birth
- Murtoa, Victoria
- Address (at enlistment)
- St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria. Previously the Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- Occupation
- Student
- Next of Kin
- Alec Gray (father), St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria
- Burial Place
No known grave
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 726
- Final Rank
- Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 5 Battalion AIF
Fate
Died (killed in action) on 25 July 1916, at Pozieres, France aged 20 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour, Canberra ACT : Panel 43
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France
Notes
Gray entered the Royal Miliary College, Duntroon on 9 March 1913 and was probably present at the Canberra naming ceremony three days later as a spectator. However, he was discharged in December 1913 for unsatisfactory progress in his studies. He applied to enlist as soon as the war began and embarked in October 1914 with the 5th Battalion. He landed on Gallipoli in April 1915, fought at Krithia and by early May had become a 2nd Lieutenant. Gray was evacuated in July 1915 with gastro enteritis. He rejoined his unit after the Battle of Lone Pine with the rank of Lieutenant and after the evacuation from Gallipoli spent time in hospital with paratyphoid and jaundice. Gray arrived in France in March 1916 and in July his battalion, part of the 1st Division of the AIF, entered the battle at Pozières. According to Bean, Gray was the Intelligence Officer of the 5th Battalion and had pegged the tape for an attack on the OG1 and OG2 lines at the northern end of Pozières. The Australians reached the OG2 line but during a counter attack by the Germans Gray was killed by shell fire. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
Description - height 5 feet 8½ inches, weight 142 pounds, chest 36 inches, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair, Church of England.
Sources
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. III p.559, 564)
Royal Military College Annual Report 1912-1913 (p.18)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)