Active Service List

The following is a list of 33 South Australian Aboriginal soldiers who experienced active service in the First World War. Due to difficulties associated with source material, this list is almost certainly not complete. It has been drawn from a wide range of sources, including service records available online from the National Archives of Australia (NAA), the NAA 'Bringing Them Home' project and other NAA records of Aboriginal people, the State Library of South Australia, State Records of South Australia, the South Australia Museum, Christobel Mattingley and Ken Hampton's book 'Survival in our own land', Doreen Kartinyeri's book 'Ngarrindjeri Anzacs' and the descendants of these men.

Any errors are mine.

1822 Private William Clarence Way AHANG of Tumby Bay, who served with the 5th Pioneer Battalion

7591 Private Eustace John BEWS of Moonta, who served with the 10th Battalion

1173 Private Alfred CAMERON of Meningie, who served with the 1st Machine Gun Squadron of the 1st Light Horse Brigade, including service on Gallipoli

3027 Private Roland Wenzel CARTER of Point McLeay, who served with the 50th Battalion and was captured as a prisoner of war

1975 Private Stanley Livingstone COPLEY of Plympton, who served with the 1st Division Motor Transport Company

4529 Private Walter GOLLAN of Point McLeay, who served with 43rd Battalion

5402 Private Daniel HODGEKISS of Point McLeay, who enlisted in Mildura, Victoria, and served with the 59th Battalion

2345 Lance Corporal George KARPANY of East Wellington, who served with the 10th Battalion, including on Gallipoli, and was wounded on four separate occasions during the war

3829 Private William KARPANY of East Wellington, who served with the 32nd Battalion

3297 Private Jack LUDGATE of Oodnadatta, who sailed with the 27th reinforcements of the 3rd Light Horse Regiment and returned to Australia due to illness before seeing action

2949 Private Miller MACK of Point McLeay, who served with the 50th Battalion and died soon after the war

3015 Private Herbert MILERA of Point Pearce, who served with the 50th Battalion

757 Private Hurtle MUCKRAY of East Wellington, who served with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, including on Gallipoli

1310 Private Gordon Charles NALEY of Mundrabilla Station, WA, who enlisted in SA, and served with the 16th Battalion on Gallipoli and was captured as a prisoner of war in France

3422 Private Harry PEEL of Port Pirie, who served with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment

3858 Private Lewis Charles POWER of Adelaide, who served with the 32nd Battalion

6879 Private Andrew James Enoch RANKINE of Point McLeay, who served with the 48th Battalion and was captured as a prisoner of war

7062 Private Ridgeway William RANKINE of Point McLeay, who served with the 10th Battalion

2042 Private Cyril Spurgeon RIGNEY of Point McLeay, who was killed in action serving with the 43rd Battalion

2663 Private Gordon Wilfred RIGNEY of Point McLeay, who served with the 5th Pioneer Battalion

3827 Private Rufus Gordon RIGNEY of Point McLeay, who was captured as a prisoner of war whilst serving with the 48th Battalion during the Battle of Passchendaele but died of his wounds a few days later

3476 Private Raymond Charles RUNGA MM of Ouyen, Victoria who was born at Naracoorte, and served with the 6th (Victoria) Battalion. He was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry at Foucaucort in August 1918

687 Private Stanford Wallace SIMPSON of Penneshaw, who landed with the 10th Battalion at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915, and later served in France with different units.

3626 Private Everett Luke SUMNER of Point McLeay, who served with the 32nd Battalion

3458 Private Wilshire SUMNER of Point McLeay, who served with the 48th Battalion

1428 Private Hubert Frank TRIPP of Victor Harbor, who served with the 10th Battalion on Gallipoli

6170 Private Francis Alban VARCOE of Point McLeay, who was killed in action whilst serving with the 27th Battalion in France

2466 Private Arthur Thomas WALKER of Goolwa, who was killed in action whilst serving with the 50th Battalion in France

6178 Private Arthur WEETRA of Balaklava, who served with the 27th Battalion

6177 Private Clifford Tony WILSON of Point McLeay, who served with the 27th Battalion

2049 Private Garnet Eustace WILSON of Point McLeay, who was mentioned in dispatches whilst serving with the 43rd Battalion

3006 Private Lush WILSON of Point McLeay, who was wounded three times whilst serving with the 50th Battalion

3967 Private Proctor Martin WILSON of Point McLeay, who lost his left leg due to wounds whilst serving with the 10th Battalion

My next post will have the names of the Aboriginal men that enlisted, but were discharged before they departed on active service.

A difficult birth...

Well, I've finally made a start on this blog. The delay has been caused by my becoming involved in a project called the Register of Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia (RAVSA). Whilst this blog is not part of the RAVSA project, the work I have already done will contribute to RAVSA.

So far I have gathered a total of 32 names of Aboriginal soldiers from South Australia that saw active service in the First World War, and another 14 who enlisted but were subsequently discharged before going on active service for a variety of reasons.

The list includes one soldier that was awarded the Military Medal and one who was mentioned in dispatches, five who served on Gallipoli, and six who were killed in action or died of wounds. Eight were wounded, several more than once, and one was wounded on four separate occasions but nevertheless survived the war. Three were taken prisoner of war by the Germans, two of them after they had been wounded, one mortally. Three served with the Light Horse, and three of these Aboriginal diggers are buried in the Australian Imperial Force cemetery on West Terrace, Adelaide.

My plan is to research each one then post a profile of them with a photograph in a similar manner to my Blackwood Soldiers Project. Unfortunately I have so far only been able to find photographs of about a third of them, so many will be accompanied by a photograph of their gravestone or their unit colour patch.

My next post will be one with the full active service list as it stands.