The Soldier's Details

Bill enlisted AIF Dec 1940 and later joined 2/4 MGB’s ‘B’ Coy 8 Platoon under CO Lt MacKinnon.  He was promoted Corporal on 24 Jan 1942.

As a POW Bill left Selerang to work with the Johore Bahru Party and was at Adam Park.

He left Singapore with ‘B’ Party on ‘Fukkai’ Maru sailing to Korea to work. Please read further

He worked at Keijo warehouse and Konan Carbide factory and was recovered from here at the end of war.

 

 

 

 

Bill left Singapore to work in Korea with Japan ‘B’ Party.  Please read further.

Read the journey of Fukkai Maru

 

Bill’s parents Charles Herbert and Mary Edith Gray (nee Tufnell) married Perth about 1914.  Bill,  born Ravensthorpe 1914 was their first child.

In 1937 Bill was residing with his parents at Kelmscott where his parents were orchardists.  Bill worked as a labourer.

In 1943 Bill was recorded residing Higginsville, Kalgoorlie gold miner.

On 20 October 1942, Bill’s father Charles Herbert Gray of Albany Road, Kelmscott, Head Warden A.R.P. Kelmscott district was killed when his motor cycle and sidecar got out of control on Albany Road, Kenwick and ran off the road ino a ditch.  Charles H. Gray was 52 years old.

Bill Gray would not learn of his father’s death until the end of the war.

 

 

FYI:   A.R.P.  Air Raid Precautions.

‘Air Raid Precautions (ARP) is one of the most remembered aspects of home-front Australia. Wardens carried gas masks, helmets and rattles or whistles. Schoolchildren were issued identity tags, in case they had to be evacuated to somewhere safer, and told to carry something to bite on to limit the shock of bomb blast. People often found it difficult to take ARP drill seriously, but there was a serious purpose behind it.’   information from AWM.

We believed Bill married about 1952 East Coolgardie to Alice Mary Seymour (nee Pethick) whose husband Harold Seymour of Miling drowned during a fishing outing with two friends to Murchison River in 1951.  Alice & Harold had two children.

Below:  31 April 1954, Bill’s widowed mother Mary Edith Gray (nee Tufnell) died.  She was the mother of seven children.

 

 

In 1956 Bill and Alice were residing in Albany where Bill was employed  as  driver/mechanic.

In 1964, 1968  and 1977 Bill is employed as a farm manager and he with Alice are living Esperance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below:  1916 ‘Troll’ Tufnell, brother of Mary Gray (nee Tufnell) DOW in France WW1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below: 1937 marriage of Alice Maud Pethick to Harold Seymour.

 

 

 

Below:  Father-in-law of Alice Seymour passed away June 1946.

 

 

Below: 1951 Harold Seymour with two friends on a fishing trip to mouth of Murchison are swept into the sea and drown.

 

 

Below:  October 1942, Alice Seymour’s mother Susan Pethick died.