POP

This was the name that the grandkids on my mum’s side of the family called her father. He was Pop. When I knew him he was already confined to bed most of the time. I cannot really tell you if it was a result of his war injuries or just old age. Just after mum’s death I was, with the help of a friend, able to find out some more details out him. As I read this again tonight I find some close associations that could be considered interesting.

ROBERT DEANS enlisted in the Australian Infantry Forces during WWI. This took place on 3 September 1916 at Bathurst, NSW into the 13th Battalion, 23rd Reinforcement. (Mum died on the 4th September 2014) Robert was 30 years of age and a Tailor. He was single, Presbyterian (I have to wonder how he became a member of the Salvation Army) and 5 ft. 5 and a half inches tall and weighed 129 pounds. He had had no Military Service before and his Regimental Number was 7104, his rank being Private.

Robert was wounded in action 11 June 1917 as a result of a gunshot wound to the left chest (my brother’s birthday was 11th June 1958) and admitted to 77th Field Ambulance and then transferred to Casualty Clearing Station; to 16th General Hospital, Le Treport on 12 June, 1917; thence to England 16 June 1917 and admitted to Southern General Hospital, Monyhull, Birmingham on 28 June 1917. On 4th July 1917 he was transferred to 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford and consequently discharged to No.2 Command Depot, Weymouth on 23 July 1917.

Pop died at the age of 83 on the 5th June 1970. My daughter’s birthday was the 5th June 1985 it also means that mum outlived her father by one year.