Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 25/09/1914
- Date of Discharge
- 29/12/1919
- Place of Enlistment
- Sydney NSW
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Date of Birth
- 12/04/1886
- Place of Birth
- London, England
- Address (at enlistment)
- Hurstville NSW (previously Duntroon ACT)
- Occupation
- Mechanic/ chauffeur
- Next of Kin
- A.L. Strong (father), Southend, England
Unit and Rank Details
- Service Number
- 1363
- Final Rank
- Corporal
- Final Unit
- Australian Motor Transport Section AIF
Notes
In 1912 Strong was employed as a chauffeur to the Commandant of the Royal Military College, Duntroon. He was an Englishman whose experience with motor vehicles dated back to 1899 when his father founded one of the first garages in London. He enlisted in September 1914 in Sydney and uniquely for local men who joined that year, Strong was sent to England, with the 8th Company, Australian Army Service Corps, rather than to Egypt where other men were sent. In England his unit was redesignated as the 301st Motor Transport Service and then as the 17th Division Ammunition Sub Park when he was sent to the Western Front and attached to the 17th Division of the British Army. He was deployed to the Ypres salient in Belgium for four months until November 1915 before returning to England suffering traumatic neurasthenia or shell shock. He was then attached to the Munitions Invention Department at Esher to develop a new type of internal combustion engine which he had designed. At the end of 1918 Strong was granted leave to attend a fitter and turners course at Goldsmith College, develop his inventions and to care for his parents. He was discharged from the AIF in London.
Strong returned to Australia and served briefly in World War 2. He gave his age as 27 years 4 months when he enlisted in 1914 suggesting he was born in 1887 rather than 1886.
Description - height 5 feet 7 inches, weight 140 pounds, chest 34-38 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair, Baptist, scar on the left of his chin.
Sources
Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
Queanbeyan Age - 21 March 1913
WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)