CORPORAL WALTER WRAY
1206 – 3rd tunnelling Company
“Walter Wray was born in 1892 at West Hartlepool, Durham, England, the son of Walter Wray, a Horse Dealer, and Rebecca Palliser of Darlington, Durham, England. The 1911 Census indicates Walter was a single man working on a horse farm near Darlington. In about 1913 young Walter left England for Australia with a substantial investment from his uncle Charles Wray, of Darlington, and instructions to invest it in a timber company near Perth, Western Australia.
Our family story is that Walter married a young woman in England (1911-15), whom may have been ill or crippled and whom he abandoned when he left for Australia.”
Jayne Hyslop, Canada - 1st cousin twice removed to Walter Wray.
Walter Wray was a single 24-year-old Miner of Day Dawn, Western Australia when he signed the ‘Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad’ on 20 October 1915. He stated that he was ‘used to horses’ and that he had previously been ‘Rejected once, slight defect, now all right’.
At a medical examination at Day Dawn on 25 October it was recorded that Walter was 5ft 9ins tall and weighed 11st 4 lbs. He had a fair complexion, grey and hazel eyes and fair hair. He listed his religion as Church of England. He was considered to be ‘fit for active service’.
Walter named as his Next-of-Kin his father Walter Wray of 47 Selbourne Terrace, Green Bank, Darlington, Durham, England. This was later changed to his wife, Margaret Wray of 33 Napier Street, Darlington, County of Durham, England. He signed the Oath to ‘well and truly serve’ at Blackboy Hill, Western Australia also on 29 October and on 6 November the Commander of the Camp appointed him to the Miners Corps.
Recruiting for the Miners’ Corps officially began on December 1st, 1915 therefore Private Wray was placed for basic training at the Helena Vale camp at Blackboy Hill, W.A. with the newly forming Corps. The Unit’s title was the No. 3 Company with a major portion of No. 3 Company recruited by 2nd Lt. L.J. Coulter, A.I.F. who was sent from N.S.W. to W.A. for that purpose. They were made up to strength with 1 Officer and 274 Other Ranks and embarked from Fremantle, W.A.
On December 18, 1915 the company sailed for Sydney, NSW on board the troopship SS Indarra. His name appears on the passenger list which was published in:
On Boxing Day (Dec 26th), 1915 the Unit arrived in Sydney and marched into Casula Camp, near Liverpool, NSW. They were joined by the 4th Section of the Tasmanian Miners, bringing the establishment strength up to 15 officers and 349 Other Ranks under the command of 2nd Lieutenant L.J. Coulter.
Mining Corps Units from all Military districts came together at Casula camp, near Liverpool, NSW to complete training as a Corps. Wray was assigned the regimental number 1206 in the rank of Sapper and remained in No. 3 Company.
At a civic parade in the Domain, Sydney on Saturday February 19, 1916, a large crowd of relations and friends of the departing Miners lined the four sides of the parade ground. Sixty police and 100 Garrison Military Police were on hand to keep the crowds within bounds. The scene was an inspiriting one. On the extreme right flank, facing the saluting base, were companies of the Rifle Club School; next came a detachment of the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, then the bands of the Light Horse, Liverpool Depot, and the Miners’ on the left, rank upon rank, the Miners’ Battalion.
The Corps boarded HMAT A38 Ulysses in Sydney, NSW on February 20 and sailed for the European theatre. Arriving in Melbourne, Victoria on February 22 the Miners camped at Broadmeadows for a stay of 7 days while further cargo was loaded.
Another parade was held at the Broadmeadows camp on March 1, the Miners’ Corps being inspected by the Governor-General, as Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth military forces.
The Mining Corps comprised 1303 members at the time they embarked with a Headquarters of 40; No.1 Company – 390; No.2 Company – 380; No.3 Company – 392, and 101 members of the 1st Reinforcements.
Ulysses arrived in Melbourne, Victoria on 22 February and the Miners were camped at Seymour while additional stores and equipment were loaded onto Ulysses. Departing Melbourne on 1 March, Ulysses sailed to Fremantle, Western Australia where additional members of the Corps were embarked. After a delay of about a month due to Ulysses requiring repairs following a collision with an uncharted rock when leaving Fremantle on 8 March, The Mining Corps sailed for the European Theatre on 1 April 1916. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’.
The ship arrived at Suez, Egypt on 22 April, departing for Port Said the next day; then on to Alexandria. The Captain of the ship was reluctant to take Ulysses out of the Suez Canal because he felt the weight of the ship made it impossible to manoeuvre in the situation of a submarine attack. The Mining Corps was transhipped to B1 Ansonia for the final legs to Marseilles, France via Valetta, Malta. Arriving at Marseilles on 5 May, most of the men entrained for Hazebrouck where they arrived to set up their first camp on 8 May 1916.
A ‘Mining Corps’ did not fit in the British Expeditionary Force, and the Corps was disbanded and three Australian Tunnelling Companies were formed. The Technical Staff of the Corps Headquarters, plus some technically qualified men from the individual companies, was formed into the entirely new Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company (AEMMBC), better known as the ‘Alphabetical Company’.
The No.3 Company, of which Walter was a member, officially transferred to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company (3ATC) on December 18, 1916.
On 14 July 1916 Walter was promoted to 2nd Corporal, in the field. Three days later on 17 July he was wounded in action.
The 3ATC Diary for July 1916 records:-
July 14 to 18: “The work of sinking the 2nd shaft was started at Mauquissart. The 257th Coy R.E. relieved on part of the Front from and including Winchester southwards. New defensive systems and extensions of the Red Lamp system were then started.
Company Order No. 53 – 1206 2nd Cpl W. Wray wounded on 17/7/16”
On 17 July 1916 he was admitted to No.3 Canadian General Hospital Boulogne, suffering a gun shot wound to his left forearm. He was transferred on the same day to the 1/2 London Casualty Clearing Station and then to the No.7 Casualty Clearing Station.
Walter embarked for England from Boulogne on 24 July 1916 on board Cambria - ex No.3 Canadian General Hospital, Boulogne, and was admitted the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester, England.
The 2nd Great Western Hospital in Manchester had 24 sections totalling 16,838 other rank beds and 182 Officer beds in the Manchester area.
On 23 August 1916 he was discharged from hospital to Head Quarters and on 25 August was taken on strength of No.1 Command Depot, Perham Downs. He was transferred to the Parkhouse camp on 13 September 1916.
At Perham Downs on 26 October 1916 Walter was charged with the offence of being Absent Without Leave from 2400 hours on 26 October to 1700 hours on 27 October 1916. He was found guilty and awarded a ‘Reprimand’ and forfeited one days pay.
On 1 November 1916 Walter was admitted to Parkhouse Military Hospital where he remained for 157 days until 6 April 1917.
He proceeded overseas to France from Draft Depot, Perham Downs via Folkestone on14 April 1917 and marched in to Australian General Base Depot, France on 15 April. On 21 April he marched in to the 1st Anzac Entrenching Battalion and proceeded to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company on 1 May 1917, rejoining his unit on 4 May 1917.
Walter was wounded in action for a 2nd time (gassed) on 22 June 1917.
3ATC War Diary:
22 Jun1917 :
“Work in Progress:- Cutting shelters & chambers in Slag Dump. Tunnelling under road (M.30.b.10.15). Progress delayed by enemy shelling. Salvaging ammonal, rails, pumps, hoses, motors etc. from the Mines at Hill 70. Fosse 16 Water Scheme and wells at St. Pierre (M.10.c.50.50). Two wells cleaned out and tanks erected.”
On 23 June he was admitted to the 18th Casualty Clearing Station and on 26 June was transferred to Ambulance Train 8. He embarked for England on 7 July on board Hospital Ship Princess Elizabeth and was admitted to the Central Military Hospital, Winchchester suffering gas shell poisoning – severe.
He was transferred from Winchester General Hospital to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital on 19 July 1917 and on 26 July 1917 he was discharged to furlough. While on furlough, Walter married 26 year-old Margaret Johnstone, a milliner, on 2 August 1917 at Accrington, Lancaster. Margaret was the daughter of the late James Johnstone, a Coke Burner by profession. The couple were boarding at 1 Avenue Parade Accrington at the time.
He marched in from furlough to No.2 Command Depot, Weymouth on 9 August 1917.
Walter Wray left London on 27 August 1917 on board New Zealand Hired Transport 82 Pakeha for his return to Australia due to defective vision. He disembarked at Fremantle, Western Australia on 14 October 1917 and was discharged from the A.I.F. on 15 November 1917, entitled to wear the British War Medal (8272) and Victory Medal (8237).
Margaret remained in England and was living with Walters’ widowed father in 1917.
On 16 November 1917 a War Pension of 15 shillings per fortnight was authorised for Walter Wray, 33 Napier Street, Darlington, Durham, England in respect of his wife. Also on 16 November 1917, a War Pension of 30 shillings per fortnight was authorised for Walter Wray, 12 Gladstone Street, East Perth, Western Australia, in respect of himself.
In February 1927 his military records were forwarded to the Repatriation Commission, Perth, Western Australia.
“The family didn’t hear from him again, which precipitated a 16 month journey to Australia by Walter Wray Sr., Charles Wray & family in 1919 aboard the Miltiades. My grandmother, then aged 16, often told me about the long journey and her impressions of Australia. Somehow they had arranged for young Walter to meet the ship when it arrived in Australia. They waited 2 days on the dock. Finally my great grandfather and his brother Walter Sr., went inland to the place where the timber company was located only to find a rotting wooden structure uninhabited. They returned to England and never heard of Walter Wray again.
Family stories indicate that Walter visited his father in Darlington as an ANZAC soldier. I am presuming this might have been during the 157 days he was a patient in Manchester at Parkhurst hospital? Or perhaps on furlough. That is how they learned he was a soldier.”
Walter Wray married Margaret Johnstone at Accrington, Lancashire in July / August 1917, apparently while Walter was on furlough. It appears Walter did not get Army approval for the marriage which is probably the reason Margaret did not return to Australia with Walter when he was repatriated.
I have discovered that Mrs. M. Wray, born 1891, travelled to Fremantle onboard the ship “Bonilla” departing London 02 April 1919. The ship had returning soldiers aboard as well.
In addition I have found out that my great grandfather Charles Wray & family; with brother Walter Wray Sr., (father of the soldier Walter Wray) did not leave London until November 15, 1919 aboard the “Ormonde” (Orient Lines).
Therefore, although Margaret (Johnstone) Wray went to Darlington to live with Walter Wray Sr., in 1917, she travelled alone to Australia to reunite with her husband Walter Wray Jr.”
Jayne Hyslop, Canada
The Electoral Roll records that in 1916 Walter was registered at Day Dawn as a Miner; in 1925 at “Meridale”, Wyening as a Farmer; in 1936 at Maylands, Perth as a farm manager and in 1943 at East Perth as a Horse Dealer.
Walter and Margaret had two children. Joan was born in 1923 and served in World War 2:
Aircraftswoman Joan Wray – Service number - 103908
Next-of-Kin: Walter Wray.
Born - 1 June 1923, Toodyay, WA
Enlisted - 2 June 1943 (living Mount Lawley, WA.)
Discharged - 20 September 1944
Unit - 4 Service Flying Training School, Royal Australian Air Force.
Joan married Frank Gartrell on 31 Jan 1947 in Perth, Western Australia. They had 4 children; David, Doug, Jennifer and Sybil. Joan died on 13 Mar 1972 and is buried at Brookton Cemetery, Brookton, Perth.
Their son Brian Nelson Wray was born in 1928 in Perth, Western Australia. Brian died 8 June 1993 and was also buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery. Brian Nelson Wray’s ashes were removed from Karrakatta Cemetery and re-interred at Point Clare Cemetery, Gosford, New South Wales in the plot of Lance Willis and Alma Elizabeth Woodard. Presumably his wife Verna May, nee Woodard, did this.
Margaret Wray died on 4 August 1942 at Mt Lawley aged 51 and is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth.
Walter Wray died 1 April 1945 at Leedervile aged 55 years. He is buried with Margaret in the Karrakatta Cemetery.
© Donna Baldey 2010 updated 2016 & 2018
compiled with the great assistance of Jayne Hyslop, Canada
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