DRINKWATER, Arthur Thomas
| Service Number: | 2842 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 October 1915, Sydney, NSW |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | AIF Headquarters |
| Born: | Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia, 3 February 1894 |
| Home Town: | Queenscliff, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Professional Soldier, Royal Australian Engineers |
| Died: | Queensland, Australia, 1972, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Coburg Moreland State School No 2837 Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Oct 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Sapper, 2842, 7th Field Company Engineers, Sydney, NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 1915: | Promoted AIF WW1, Second Corporal, 7th Field Company Engineers, Sydney, NSW | |
| 26 Oct 1915: | Promoted AIF WW1, Sergeant, 7th Field Company Engineers, Sydney, NSW | |
| 30 Nov 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, Sergeant, 2842, 7th Field Company Engineers, HMAT A23 Suffolk, Sydney | |
| 22 Dec 1915: | Involvement Sergeant, 2842, 7th Field Company Engineers, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '5' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Suffolk embarkation_ship_number: A23 public_note: '' | |
| 22 Dec 1915: | Embarked Sergeant, 2842, 7th Field Company Engineers, HMAT Suffolk, Sydney | |
| 27 Jun 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Sergeant, Echelon & Records, France | |
| 28 Oct 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Sergeant, AIF Headquarters, England | |
| 16 Mar 1917: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sergeant, 2842, AIF Headquarters, Discharged in London, England, upon being appointed to a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the RFC, where he would be awarded the DFC in 1919. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Robert Wight
Early life
Arthur Thomas Drinkwater was born in Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia. His father's name was Alfred Drinkwater. When he enlisted, despite being not quite 22 years old, he claimed two years prior service in a Field Troop and almost four years experience in the Royal Australian Engineers. He was assigned Regimental Number 2842 and posted initially to the 7th Field Company Engineers.
World War I
Drinkwater was promoted from Sapper to Sergeant almost immediately. However service in the front lines in France took its toll, and after spending several weeks in various hospitals from April to June 1916, suffering from influenza, on 27 June he was transferred to the Australian Records Section, 3rd Echelon, GHQ, BEF. On 28 October he was transferred again to AIF Headquarters in London.
On 16 March 1917, Drinkwater was discharged from the AIF, on accepting a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps, and on 20 June he was appointed a flying officer in the RFC. Drinkwater was initially posted to No. 83 Squadron RFC at RAF Spitalgate, Lincolnshire, before being sent to France to serve in No. 57 Squadron, flying bombing missions in an Airco DH.4 two-seater light bomber.
Teamed with Frank Menendez as his observer/gunner, he gained his first aerial victory on 18 August 1917, and gained five more victories over the next three months before being withdrawn from combat. He returned to battle the following year, to fly a S.E.5a single-seat fighter in No. 40 Squadron RAF. He would score three more victories while with them.
Post-war career
His Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded on 3 June 1919. A month later, on 3 July 1919, he departed England for Australia on the Prinz Hubertus; he was expressly manifested as not part of the Australian Imperial Force. While he was at sea, on 15 July 1919, he was transferred to the unemployed list of the Royal Air Force.
Arthur Drinkwater settled in the early 1920s on Geera block number 13, county Karkarooc. He also appears on Annuello Block 25, county Annuello. He was made honorary secretary of the Green Mallee Council, a group of settlers who lobbied the Closer Settlement Board with the aim of gaining compensation for those settlers who were forced off their blocks through drought and of blocks which were re-allocated due to the original allocations being too small being marginal land.
He was also involved with the local community in establishing the Annuello Hall. The hall was the venue for the towns first school as well as church services, public meetings of the various local organisations and the popular Saturday night dances where he sang with such talent to be regular and well received performer. This is at a time when long time resident, Jim Taggert, reported that on Saturdays, up to a hundred and fifty people could be seen in the main street.
Drinkwater died in 1972 in Queensland, Australia.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
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