Benjamin (Ben) MOY-LING

MOY-LING, Benjamin

Service Number: 19945
Enlisted: 4 May 1917, Melbourne, Victoria
Last Rank: Sapper
Last Unit: 4th Divisional Signal Company
Born: Castlemaine, Victoria, August 1885
Home Town: Carlton North, Melbourne, Victoria
Schooling: Wesley College
Occupation: Clerk
Died: Natural causes, Melbourne, Victoria, 8 October 1946
Cemetery: Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton, Victoria
Memorials:
Show Relationships

World War 1 Service

4 May 1917: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 19945, Melbourne, Victoria
31 Oct 1917: Involvement AIF WW1, Sapper, 19945, 1st Divisional Signal Company, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: ''
31 Oct 1917: Embarked AIF WW1, Sapper, 19945, 1st Divisional Signal Company, HMAT Euripides, Sydney
10 Nov 1919: Discharged AIF WW1, Sapper, 19945, 4th Divisional Signal Company

Help us honour Benjamin Moy-Ling's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by John Edwards

"...Ben made several attempts to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). However, he was rejected as unfit on the grounds that he was "not substantially of European origin & descent". At the time, he was living at Canton with Laura and her husband Samuel Sue. While denied the right to fight for the country of his birth Ben, as a practising Methodist, would have prayed for his fellow Australians serving overseas. Ben was finally successful in enlisting on 4 May 1917, when the embargo on his non-European origin was lifted by special permission of Brigadier General R.E. Williams. Ben was quoted as saying: "If Australia is good enough to live in, it is good enough to fight for. I hope to live in it again after the war". On enlistment Ben nominated Laura as his next of kin and he also made a will, dated 7 October 1917, naming her as executrix and sole beneficiary of his estate. Ben spent several months at a training camp in Bendigo before embarking from Sydney on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 31 October 1917. He served with the 60th Battalion and later the 4th Divisional Signals Company, and he was in France when the war ended. He was discharged on 23 July 1919..." - READ MORE LINK (www.cchg.asn.au)

Read more...