Please could anybody help with the abbreviations on the attached record. I would like to know what George was doing from School on 27.07.42 onwards. I can take a guess it is to do with motor vehicles but not certain. Also, does anybody know where M'Ville is in WA, I have been unable to find out. Many thanks.
You may need one of Australian members to help with most of them: 15 01 1944 He was evacuated to 110 Australian General Hospital (AGH) - 110 Australian General Hospital was stationed at Hollywood in Western Australia during WWII. It was sometimes called Wembley because of its vicinity to Wembley. (Today you would need to employ a PR consultant for millions of quid to come up with that answer) 05 02 1944 he was transferred to 118 AGH - In the Northam townsite itself was the Australian Army 118th Australian General Hospital, a rehabilitation hospital caring for both Australian and American servicemen. Was he in the Engineers by any chance? TD edited to add: The section in red above - its something to do with my sense of humour, hope it doesn't offend anyone.
Thank you TD. That's a help anyway. He signed up for the 10th Garrison Battalion at the age of 46 years. He had served in WW1. He was transferred to 29th Garrison Battalion on 6th May 1942. No mention of Engineers. He seems to be sent for short periods of duties in different places after his spell at 'school'. The only likely suggestions for the abbreviations I found were TTC = Technical Training Centre, and I would have guessed the MV which preceeded it would have been Motor Vehicle, but I could be way off the mark! And DCRE = Deputy Commander Royal Engineers. And I only found weird things for the top line with Special Leave (PU or PV), and none of them nice! He was a tractor driver prior to enlistment, so I wondered if he might have been sent on detachment to drive the DCRE around, but a wild guess again. He came from Goomalling which was in the Northam district so I guess that is why he was transferred there. Thanks for your help. Judy
I was going to say. Possible Melville army camp. Melville Army Camp, Fremantle, Western Australia during WW2
Some good info so far. It looks like an interesting service record. I'm guessing that the service number in the title is from WW1, during WW2 he was W27633 Private George Nichols White who enlisted 19 Feb 1941 and was discharged 15 Feb 1945 from 29 Garrison Battalion. World War Two Nominal Roll From what I have seen most soldiers who served with the Garrison Battalions were released relatively early in the war as the threat of invasion subsided. Whereas George actually served for quite a long time which makes me think he was a full-time staff member rather than a temporary (emergency) member. The lines annotated 12-2-44 are out of sequence and show that on 2Feb 1944 he was released from 118AGH to GDD (General Duties Depot / General Details Depot) and on 4Feb he was returned from the GDD to his unit 29GB He was then granted two weeks of Additional Recreation Leave - probably to help him recuperate from whatever put him in hospital (ARL m/o 5Feb, m/i 18Feb). The couple of days in GDD was probably just spent waiting for transport back to his unit from Claremont to Melville (it's not very far, but they might have been waiting for a vehicle going that way to take him). If I'm reading the file correctly, he took ill in Fremantle (Melville) and was admitted to 110AGH at Wembley (Hollywood) he was then moved to 118AGH in Northam before being sent to Claremont for processing back to his unit at Melville
Thanks DaveB. You were right of course about his service number, I put WW1 instead of WW2. I wondered about the very short stay in GDD but your suggestion makes good sense. Judy
