Donnelly, Augustine Stanislaus
SURNAME
Donnelly
NAME
Augustine Stanislaus
PLACE OF BIRTH
Cairns, QLD
OCCUPATION
Sugar Chemist
PLACE OF ENLISTMENT
Cairns, QLD
DATE OF ENLISTMENT
20/05/1916
NEXT OF KIN
Richard Donnelly (father), Mossman. Qld
LINK TO DOUGLAS SHIRE
Next of kin
REGIMENT 1
49th Battalion AIF
REGIMENT 2
47th Battalion AIF
RANK
Sergeant
CAMPAIGN 1
Western Front
DATE DISCHARGED
21/04/1920
OTHER INFORMATION
Regiments: also 13th Battalion, 21st Battalion, 46th Battalion. British War Medal, Victory Medal
STORY OUTLINE
Augustine (Austin) Donnelly was brought up on the family farm on Syndicate Road, Mossman. He was a sugar chemist, aged 22, when he enlisted in Cairns on 20 May 1916.
He served in five different Battalions, rising to the rank of Sergeant. He was hospitalised due to being gassed and wounded and from illness.
Austin played his part in the critical offensive in mid-September 1918. Outnumbered six to one and in fierce rain, the Australian assault was successful against entrenched Germans on the Hindenburg line.
In 1919 he married a young Irish woman he met on furlough. He returned on 27 February 1920 with his wife Annie. He was discharged on 21 April 1920.
After the war, Austin worked as a sugar chemist at the Inkerman Mill, Home Hill. He wrote about the sugar industry under the pen name 'Sucrose' and in 1919 moved to full-time journalism, rising to Deputy Editor at The Townsville Daily Mail.
SERVICE NO
2641A
