Miller Street, Gilgandra, NSW
4880
13th Battalion, 15th Reinforcement
Gilgandra Coo-ee
Returned to Australia 23.4.1919
Private Victor Quinton 4880
Born in Gilgandra, Victor was 19 when he enlisted with the Coo-ees October 9, 1915. His next of kin was his mother, Mrs Elizabeth Lumley of Miller St Gilgandra, and later, ‘Melrose’ Biddon, NSW. The medical examination described him as 5’ 4 ½” tall, dark hair, dark complexion, blue-green eyes, a long scar outer side left leg and four moles above the ankle.
He trained at Liverpool and embarked for Egypt on the Star of Victoria on March 8, arriving in Alexandria, Egypt, in April 1916. By the end of May he was attached to the 4th Pioneer Training Battalion. On June 6, he left Alexandria for France and was taken on strength with the 4th Pioneer Battalion on July 22, 1916 at the Western Front.
On August 5, 1916 Victor was reported as Missing in Action, but he had been buried by a shell exploding in the communication trench he was building near Pozieres. He was evacuated with “shell shock” but was back with his unit in France August 11, 1916. In early December he was admitted to hospital with influenza and was sent to England for treatment and convalescence. He never returned to France and spent the rest of the war in England with the Australian Army Ordnance Corps, which was concerned with supply and administration.
The transport ship Nevasa brought Victor home to Sydney on April 23, 1919 and he was discharged on June 12, 1919. He received the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
After the war, fellow Coo-ee William Alston married Victor’s sister, Ivy, and Victor married May Lumley in 1930. May died on July 1, 1973 aged 70 years and Victor died 20 days later, aged 77 years. They are buried in Coonabarabran Cemetery.