The Story of Lance Dawes.

This post tells the story of my paternal 3rd cousin once removed, Lance Dawes  (1917 - 1943). 

Our common ancestors are:  James Hukins and Susannah Fullagar (my 3x great grandparents).

Lance Dawes - WW11 enlistment photo

Recently I've been doing a lot of research about the family tree members who fought in World War 11, and whilst it was very heartening to see that the majority of them made it home to their loved ones, I found a small group of men who tragically set off to serve overseas and never returned.  

The end of the line for this group occurred on foreign soil for all but one.  Four of the group had a burial place, but sadly, Lance Dawes did not.  This is his story:

Lance was born in the town of Murwillumbah, New South Wales, in 1917.  He was the fourth of six children born to Frederick Dawes and Susan Charlotte Timms.

Before the birth of Lance, his mother Susan had given birth to Audrey in 1912, Cecil in 1914 and Netta in 1915.   Then following the birth of Lance, Hazel was born in 1919 and Wilfred came along in 1922.

Records (his RAAF air crew application) show that Lance attended the Murwillumbah Primary School until the end of 1929.

  

Lance's name appeared on a list of primary school students who had qualified for entrance to the Murwillumbah High School, published in early 1930 in the newspaper, The Northern Star.  He then attended Murwillumbah High School from 1930 until May of 1932 when he turned 15.  

It appears that the family left Murwillumbah around this time, and moved further north to the area around Piggabeen, a town located in far north-eastern New South Wales, inland from Tweed Heads in the Tweed Shire.

Lance's father was a dairyman and established his own dairy farm in the area.   

Piggabeen had predominantly been a dairy farming town throughout the early 1900s, but by the time the Dawes family had re-located there, other industries had begun to flourish.  The rich volcanic soil in the region was particularly suitable for banana growing, and by the beginning of World War 11, Lance had a small farm of his own on which he grew bananas.

In October of 1940, Lance completed his application a an Airman with the Royal Australian Air Force.

In November of 1940, at the age of 23,  Lance submitted his application for air crew selection in the Royal Australian Air Force.  

Some of the details included on his application were his occupation (banana grower), sports and games he had played (cricket and tennis) and the fact that he had not completed an Intermediate or Junior Public Examination.  He had deferred his education after completing a term examination in April of 1932.

After sending off his application, there was a bit of a wait until Lance was actually called up to serve.

In the meantime, in May of 1941, Lance enrolled in the R.A.A.F. Reserve and was posted as Air Crew to Group V of the Reserve.  His Reserve Badge No. was 3524.

 

Then an item appeared in a local newspaper, dated September 27, 1841, stating that Lance "has received his call-up for the R.A.A.F. and will report for duty shortly".

Attestation papers completed in October of 1941

Enlistment Photo 1941

On the 12th of October 1941, at the age of 24, Lance travelled to the Recruiting Centre in Brisbane, Queensland and completed his attestation forms to enlist with the R.A.A.F.  

He was the first of the family to enlist for wartime service.   

Younger brother Wilfred enlisted with the RAAF just a couple of months later, in January of 1942, aged 19.  Older brother Cecil enlisted in April of 1942 with the CMF, aged 28.  

There was quite a lengthy period of training ahead for Lance, from October of 1941 to August of 1942.

A list of Lance's postings from his war service record

Lance trained at 3 I.T.S. - No. 3 Initial Training School - at Sandgate in Brisbane, Queensland, towards the end of 1941. This initial training would have taken two months to complete. 

He was then mustered to 3 W.A.G.S. - 3 Wireless Air Gunner School - located at Maryborough, Queensland, in December of 1941.  There he completed the seven-month course that in peacetime would take at least two years!

In June of 1942, Lance was mustered to 1 B.A.G.S. - No 1 Bombing and Air Gunnery School - at Ballarat, and then almost a month later was mustered to 3 E.D. - No. 3 Embarkation Depot - at Kingaroy in Queensland.

In July of 1942 Lance, aged 25, married Edna Mavis Rylah, aged 20.   

A newspaper item published in the local newspaper gave quite a few details about their special day.

Lance and Edna were married at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Tweed Heads, New South Wales.  They were married for only seven months before tragedy struck.

It appears that they spent their honeymoon with Lance's parents in Piggabeen.  The newspaper item above, published at the beginning of August 1942, states that "Sergeant Lance Dawes ... and his wife" had been staying with Mr. and Mrs. F. Dawes of Piggabeen.

August 1942 was the month when Lance was posted to the 22nd Squadron, initially located at Richmond, New South Wales, but then moved to NEA Port Moresby in October of 1942.  So, less than two months after being in Piggabeen with his wife and parents, Lance was in New Guinea with the 22nd Squadron which was there to support Australian Army operations against the Japanese around Buna and Gona.  

Lance had graduated as a Wireless Air Gunner (WAG) in mid 1942 and the WAG's task was to protect his aircraft from enemy attack, whilst maintaining contact with the home base, and helping to navigate a course by means of radio direction finding.

He performed his first operational sortie in November of 1942, and went on to perform five more operational sorties over the next couple of months.  These six sorties totalled 12 hours flown as part of a 3-man crew.  Unfortunately, Lance's time in the skies was about to end.

In February of 1943 Lance was one of a 3-man crew flying a DB-7B Boston Mark 111 (Serial No: A28-21).  The pilot was George Trevelyan Smith and the other crew member with Lance was Sergeant Roderick Thomas Kerr.

On February 6 of 1943 their aircraft took off from 5 Mile Drome near Port Moresby on a mission against Salamaua.  

The aircraft was shot down into the sea 2 miles south east of Salamaua, New Guinea.  

All three crew members were declared "missing, believed killed" by the R.A.A.F. that day.

The R.A.A.F. report into the disappearance of the air crew stated that "reconnaissance from the air 5 minutes later revealed dinghy and debris but no trace of crew."  The report went on to state that the aircraft was "shot down in flames" and that the R.A.A.F. presumed it was either an "enemy fighter known to be concentrated in the immediate area at that time" or an "enemy aircraft from Salamaua".

An item appeared in a local newspaper, the Tweed Daily, on the 20th of February 1943 that stated "Mrs. L. Dawes, of Piggabeen, has been advised that her husband Sgt. Lance Dawes, RAAF, is reported missing, believed dead, as the result of air operations in the North early this month."

So, it was two weeks after the event that the Piggabeen community became aware of the possible tragic loss of one of their own.

This is the official letter that Mavis received from the RAAF.

It was not until over a year later however, that an obituary appeared in the Tweed Daily newspaper.

Five months after that, in September of 1945, the Piggabeen community organised a remembrance service to honour twelve of their young men, including Lance, who had made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Unfortunately, there was no grave site or burial plot for Lance, and no tombstone for him.   His name and his service however were honoured in other ways.

Lance's name is inscribed on the Murwillumbah High School WW2 Roll of Honour Board in Murwillumbah, New South Wales.  

His name is also inscribed on the All Saints' Church's WW11 Roll of Honour Board in Murwillumbah, New South Wales.

There is a memorial plaque for Lance on the Roll of Honour Wall at the Australian War Memorial - Panel 101. 

Lance's name is also engraved on one of the bronze tablets at the Lae Memorial in New Guinea.  

This memorial commemorates more than 300 Australians who lost their lives whilst serving in New Guinea and have no known grave.

The Story of Cyril Ernest Connors / Memories ... June 18

This post tells the story of my paternal Grand Uncle, Cyril Ernest Connors  (1888 - 1942).

Our common ancestors are:  Thomas Edgar Connors and Susannah (Susan) Fullagar Hukins.

I'm publishing this post on the anniversary of my grand uncle's passing.

In Remembrance

(For my 'Family Anniversaries' page)

• Cyril Ernest was born in Berry, New South Wales in April of 1888.  He was the eighth of ten children born to Thomas Edgar Connors and Susannah (Susan) Fullagar Hukins.  

• By the time Cyril was 22 years of age, both his parents had died and two of his brothers had passed away.  His brother William had died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, and his brother James had tragically died at the age of 23 of burns received during an accident at his workplace.  

 

• In 1913 Cyril was living with his older brother Percy in Berry, New South Wales, and both were working as 'carters' - typically carters transported goods, such as produce, around the region in horse-drawn vehicles.  

• The brothers had grown up working on farms and were known as excellent horsemen.  Cyril had worked on and off as a horse breaker in the region and had also been a member of the Berry Lancers Militia Regiment for around seven years.

• On the 1st of October 1914 Cyril travelled to Adamstown, a suburb of Newcastle in New South Wales, to enlist for service in WW1.  He was 26 years old.

Attestation Form - World War 1 - Cyril Ernest Connors

• On his Attestation Form, Cyril listed his trade/occupation as "horse breaker", and he identified his brother Percy as his next of kin.

Cyril Ernest Connors - Lighthorseman WW1

World War 1 Service

• Cyril enlisted with a mounted infantry regiment, the 6th Light Horse Regiment, AIF, 'B' Squadron
• He embarked in December of 1914 aboard the HMAT A29 Suevic
• He spent time training in Egypt before arriving at Gallipoli on the 20th of May 1915
• The 6th Light Horse (without their horses) were responsible of a sector on the far right of the ANZAC line, playing a defensive role until it left the peninsula at the end of 1915
• Just prior to this though, Cyril became ill with influenza while fighting at Gallipoli 
• In October 1915, he was evacuated to Malta aboard the hospital ship HMHS Formosa 
• He spent six month recuperating at the Floriana Military Hospital in Malta, and was then sent to Egypt where he joined the Imperial Camel Corps 
• This unit saw some heavy fighting and Cyril was wounded several times
• He rose to the rank of Company Quarter Master Sergeant

• In 1918 the Camel Corps was disbanded and Cyril was transferred back to the Light Horse
• He returned to Australia on leave in November 1918 just as the war was ending.

Sadly, Cyril's youngest brother Erice Sylvester (the baby of the family who had enlisted in September of 1915, while Cyril was fighting at Gallipoli) was killed in action in France in December of 1916.  

Cyril was at that time serving with the Camel Corps in Egypt.  I do wonder at what point Cyril found out about the death of his brother, and how that impacted him, both emotionally and psychologically. 

A postcard photo of Vera
that she sent to her brother while
he was away serving during WW1

• In February of 1922, at the age of 33, Cyril married Vera Agnes Coleman at Murwillumbah in New South Wales.

Cyril was aged 33 and Vera was 25 years old.

They went on to have seven children, four sons and three daughters, although sadly their first-born daughter passed away when she was only eight months old.

• Between the years of 1925 to 1936, Cyril worked at the State Government's Wollongbar Experiment Farm.  He was appointed the Dairy Foreman in 1928.

• Cyril changed employment in 1937 and began working as a Stud Master at the Camden Park Estate.

• The 1937 Electoral Roll shows Cyril and wife Vera (and family) living at the Camden Park Estate, near Menangle in New South Wales. 

• By the beginning of 1942 however, the family had moved to Baerami Creek, in the Upper Hunter River region of New South Wales.

• In January of 1942 Cyril travelled once more to Adamstown in New South Wales to re-enlist with the Volunteer Defence Corps.

 

World War 11 Service

• Cyril enlisted in the Second World War in January 1942.

• He was attached to the Camp Staff at Raymond Terrace in New South Wales and was likely involved with recruit training.

• Six months after his re-enlistment, Cyril passed away suddenly.  He died in June of 1942 at the age of 54, survived by his wife and six children.

• Cyril was buried at the Alstonville Cemetery

The Story of Thomas Richard Connors / Memories ... April 19

This post tells the story of my paternal Uncle, Thomas Richard Connors  (1911 - 1972).

Our common ancestors are:  George Thomas Connors and Grace Olive Brown.

I'm publishing this post on the anniversary of my uncle's birth.

 Anniversary of a Birthday:   

(For my 'Family Anniversaries' page)

*Our common ancestors are: George Thomas Connors and Grace Olive Brown.

 

• My paternal uncle, Thomas Richard Connors, was born on the 19th of April 1911, at Mullumbimby, in New South Wales.

• His father was George Thomas Connors and his mother was Grace Olive Brown.

• Thomas was the third-born of eleven children born to George and Grace, and he was known as 'Tommy' to his family. 

• Tommy's father George worked on dairy farms in the Richmond Valley / Lismore area of New South Wales between Tommy's birth year 1911 and the early 1920s.  The family moved around for quite some time, to wherever George was able to find work.  By 1924, when Tommy was 12 years old, the family had moved to Queensland, around the Maleny area at first, but then further south around Beaudesert.  By 1936, father George, mother Grace and a few of Tommy's siblings had moved to Gympie.

• In 1932, aged 21, Tommy married Dulcie Elizabeth Charlotte Hunt at Murgon in Queensland, and they went on to have a son two years later.  It seems however that the marriage did not last.

• The 1936 and 1937 Australian Electoral Rolls records Tommy living at Mellor Street in Gympie, and there is no mention of his wife Dulcie.

• The 1936 electoral roll record shows he is with his father George and his sister Beryl at Mellor Street.  His mother was recorded as living in Wickham Street that day, and I'm not entirely sure why this would be so.

• The 1937 electoral roll record shows Tommy living on his own at Mellor Street, while his parents and older sister have moved to O'Connell Street.

Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
AWM ARTV06766.

• Tommy enlisted with the 2nd AIF on the 3rd of June 1940, exactly nine months after the Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies had announced Australia was at war with Germany.  He joined the 2/15 Australian Infantry Battalion.

• The attestation form completed and signed by Tommy states that he was 29 years 1 mth old, and that he was single.  While he might have been estranged from his wife, he was actually still married at this stage.  He gave his address as O'Connell Street in Gympie, which was the address of his parents.

This was Tommy's enlistment photo, taken a month after his 29th birthday.

His war service lasted until the end of January 1946.

He served firstly in the Middle East, from his disembarkation in February 1941, to February 1943.  

Tommy was a 'Rat of Tobruk" during 1941.

The Siege of Tobruk was a confrontation that lasted 241 days between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of World War Two. The siege started on 10 April 1941, when Tobruk was attacked by an Italo–German force under Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel and continued for 241 days up to 27 November 1941, when it was relieved by the Allied 8th Army during Operation Crusader.

The “Rats of Tobruk” was the name given to the soldiers of the garrison who held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps during the Siege. 

The garrison, commanded by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, consisted of the 9th Australian Division (20th, 24th, and 26th Brigades), the 18th Brigade of the 7th Australian Division, four regiments of British artillery and some Indian troops.

(excerpt from www.monumentaustralia.org.au)

The men of the Tobruk garrison lived in dugouts and caves, enduring scorching hot days, freezing cold nights and dust storms, all the while under daily bombings, tank attacks and artillery barrages.  Ordered to hold back the German advance for eight weeks, they held on for five months!

Tommy was in Tobruk for eight months in 1941 and towards the end of the war he would state that three months of that time was "very bad"!

A record of the 'Rats of Tobruk' put together in 2018, p. 102
https://ratsoftobrukassociation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/TOBRUK_AK_WEB_020721R.pdf 
found on the Rats of Tobruk Association website

(Photo held by the Australian War Memorial - Copyright expired - public domain)
L-R:  QX5873 Corporal Douglas John Allen, died of wounds on 22 September 1943 in New Guinea;
QX5139 (later 11189) Corporal John Thomas Sheppard, later awarded a Military Medal;
QX10535 Lance Corporal Alfred Claude Kling, died of wounds on 1 September 1942 in Libya;
QX17607 Corporal Paul Stewart Persse Delpratt;
QX3352 Private Thomas Richard Connors;
QX1970 Pprivate Stanley Lentell;
QX3350 Private Eric George Crawford, died of wounds on 27 October 1942 in Libya.

• The photo above shows a group portrait of members of the 2/15 Battalion, including my uncle Tommy.  He is 3rd from the right.  The photo was taken sometime in 1941 when they were serving in the Middle East.  Only four men in this group returned home to Australia at the end of the war.

• Tommy also served at El Alamein as a Bren Gunner, for about four to five months, and he would recall later on that "There was a lot of shelling on the first night and we were shelled for about four to five days.  The noise of our own artillery guns was very bad and we couldn't sleep."  That was his experience in just the first week there.

• After being withdrawn from the Middle East, the 2/15 Battalion then served in New Guinea, from 1943 to 1946.  During those years, Tommy suffered many bouts of malaria and both his physical and psychological health deteriorated.

• I know from stories told by my father (who was Tommy's brother), that the war experiences were deeply traumatic for Tommy and left wounds not visible to the eye.   A photo of Tommy was taken upon his discharge in January of 1946 and when putting his enlistment and discharge photos side-by-side, I think the impact of his war service is clearly evident.

• At the beginning of 1945, Tommy's first marriage had been dissolved by decree of the Supreme Court of Brisbane.  

.

• He was discharged from the Australian Military Forces in January of 1946.

• After his discharge, Tommy married Catherine Millicent Soames (known as Cathy) when he was 36 years old.  They were married in Nambour, Queensland in 1947.   At that time, Tommy was working as a public works employee.

• The 1949 electoral roll shows Tommy, aged 38, and wife Catherine living in  Channon Street, Gympie.

• Tommy and Catherine went on to have four children, and during the 1950s the family was living at Imbil, near the Imbil State Forest in southern Queensland.  

• The 1954, 1958 and 1963 electoral rolls show that Tommy and Catherine were living at Stirling Crossing at Imbil, and Thomas's occupation was forestry worker.

• The 1969 electoral roll shows Tommy, aged 58, was still working as a forestry labourer, but was now living back in Gympie with his wife Catherine.

• Sadly, Tommy passed away not much later, in 1972, aged 61.  He was buried at the cemetery in Gympie.

• A plaque was also erected to Tommy's memory at the Garden of Remembrance in Brisbane, in honour of his service to our country.

• Fittingly and rightly so, Tommy's grandson has proudly marched in a previous Anzac Day parade wearing his grandfather's medals.

• On this 2023 Anzac Day, 77 years after Tommy's discharge from war service, we remember him.