Site Home
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Great War Home
Search
Add Stories & Photos
Library
Help & FAQs
Features
Allied Army
Day by Day
RFC & RAF
Prisoners of War
War at Sea
Training for War
The Battles
Those Who Served
Hospitals
Civilian Service
Women at War
The War Effort
Central Powers Army
Central Powers Navy
Imperial Air Service
Library
World War Two
Submissions
Add Stories & Photos
Time Capsule
Information
Help & FAQs
Glossary
Our Facebook Page
Volunteering
News
Events
Contact us
Great War Books
About
250242Cpl. 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.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.