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Cpl. Royal Victor Aynsley
Australian Imperial Forces 54th Battalion
from:Penrith, NSW, Australia
Roy Aynsley submitted his Enlistment application in the Australian Imperial Forcesin April 1916. On the 9th of June 1916 when he was 18 years old, Roy signed his attestation paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad. He was part of the 7th Reinforcements, 54th Battalion, AIF.
On 6th of June 1916, Roy had undertaken a medical examination that listed his details as follows:
- Age: 18yrs 9 mths
- Height: 5ft 3 ½ in (161cm)
- Weight: 136lb (62kg)
- Complexion: Fresh
- Chest: 32 ½ in, 34 ½ in
- Eyes: Hazel 6/10, 6/10
- Hair: Brown
Roy completed his initial army training at the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Forces No.20 Musketry School at Liverpool in October 1916. On the 25th of October 1916, Roy embarked at Sydney on the HMAT Ascanius, bound for England. Roy disembarked in Davenport on 28th December 1916 and Marched into the 14th Training Battalion in Hurdcott, Wiltshire. Hurdcott was the site of a training facility for Australian and New Zealand troops. Roy was trained as a Lewis Gunner.
On the 14th of November 1917 Roy was transported from Southampton to France as a member of the 7th Reinforcements, 54th Battalion. He was taken on strength on the 22nd of November 1917. After Roy's arrival in France, his battalion was involved in numerous engagements between March 1918 and the end of the war in October 1918. Roy was wounded in action on the 1st of September 1918 during the attack on Peronne and the Anvil Wood engagement. He was shot in the hand and the right leg. Roy was admitted to an Line of Communication field hospital on the 2nd of September and had the bullet removed. He was then invalided to England on the 5th of September and admitted to the 3rd Western General Hospital for recovery on 6th of September 1918.
He took a furlough in London from the 12th to 28th of November 1918, by which time the war had ended. He departed Liverpool aboard the HMAT Nestor on the 12th of December. Roy arrived in Sydney on the 14th of February 1919.
He attended the Garrison Hospital at Victoria Barracks on the 18th of February 1919. Roy was discharged from the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force with the Rank of Corporal on the 20th of March, 1919. On discharge there is a record of him availing of a free return train ticket to Parkes, in the central west of New South Wales, but no reason as to why. However, it is possible he was visiting Minnie Bell who was a nurse during those years. Records are scant during this period but it is known that Roy resumed his career at the Government Savings bank of NSW and was back in Katoomba at the time he married Minnie Bell on the 22nd of March 1922.
