Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

17/09/1915

Date of Discharge

10/01/1920

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

15/10/1891

Place of Birth

Queanbeyan NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Railway Gates, Queanbeyan NSW

School(s) Attended

Queanbeyan Public School

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Dugald Annand (father), Railway Gates, Queanbeyan NSW

Service Number

3456

Final Rank

Corporal

Final Unit

56th Battalion

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Roll of Honour Queanbeyan Public School, Isabella Street, Queanbeyan NSW

Roll of Honour at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Lowe Street, Queanbeyan

Reg Annand was born in Queanbeyan on 15 October 1891 and lived at the Railway Gates near Oaks Estate and the railway station where his father worked. He worked as a labourer with survey parties in the ACT before the war, particularly around the Weston Creek and Stromlo area. On 17 September 1915 he enlisted in Goulburn and embarked overseas three months later as a Private with the 8th reinforcements to the 20th Battalion, however he joined the newly formed 56th Battalion in February 1916 after arriving in Egypt. Annand and the men of the battalion were given a horrendous christening the following month when the 14th Brigade, which included the 56th Battalion, was ordered to march across the desert from their camp at Tel-el-Kebir to Ferry Post to assist in the defence of the Suez Canal. The three day march was made during the heat of the day and with limited supplies of water. Few men made it to Ferry Post without falling out. Annand and the 56th Battalion left Alexandria in Egypt in June 1916 aboard a captured German ship and he witnessed the sinking of an American vessel near Malta. On arrival in France, Annand and the 56th Battalion were soon sent to the frontline at Fleurbaix in the north of the country where they provided close support to the other battalions of the 14th Brigade during the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. Annand was shot in the back and left hip during the fighting and was sent for treatment at Southwark Hospital in England.  

After recovering from his wounds, Reg spent more than a year in training camps on the Salisbury Plain before being promoted to Corporal and transferred to the 54th Battalion in September 1917. He eventually returned to the Western Front in November 1917 after the Passchendaele campaign when his new battalion were manning the trenches in the Messines sector. He served at Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918 and took part in the Battle of Amiens which began on 8 August 1918. On 1 September 1918 the 54th Battalion stormed the fortress at Péronne and at the end of the month was part of the attack on Estrees. After that Annand went to England on leave where he was transferred back to the 56th Battalion. He returned to Australia in June 1919 and was finally discharged on 10 January 1920 suffering with pterygium (conjunctivitis). Annand married Elsie Betts in Sydney in 1921. He served in World War 2 as a Warrant Officer in the 2nd Military District Accounts Office, however he and his wife separated and after the war he lived with his son Max in Flinders Way, Griffith although he later lived at Kingston. Annand died on 26 January 1968 at the Sir Leslie Morshead War Veterans’ Home in Lyneham, aged 76 years and was buried in WodenCemetery.

Description - height 5 feet 5½ inches, weight 140 pounds, chest 33½-35½ inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair, Presbyterian, scars over his left breast and right knee.

NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)

NAA RecordSearch - Series A657, DS1914/2689 Stuart H. Jansen foreman - employment
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Commonwealth Electoral Roll, Eden-Monaro (1909)
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980

Ross St. Claire, ‘Our Gift to the Empire: 54th Australian Infantry Battalion, 1916-1919’, 2006

Queanbeyan Age - 8 December 1897, 8 August 1911, 19 July 1912, 13 October 1916, 29 May 1917
Sydney Mail - 30 May 1917 

The Canberra Times - 13, March 1963, 29 January 1968

Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.2, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)