Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Australia was involved in WW1 because of their mother country (Britain) and they were pressured in to joining the war to show the loyalty they had for Britain. So many Australian men joined up to serve in the war not knowing what it was.

Alban Joseph LEAHY was an unmarried 19-year-old South Australian who worked at an office in Norwood. While living in a house on Beulah Road, Norwood, he was presented with an opportunity to fight in WW1. Having insight into what it would be like, he willingly joined up. He was a Roman Catholic with a height of approximately 5 feet with a weight of 147 lbs, blue eyes and was considered fit for active service on August 18th 1914 and his service number was 2775. He enlisted into the war and sailed out on a ship called the HMAT Medic A7 on the 25/12/18.

I personally think that my solider did not have a reason for heading into the war because at that time nobody knew what they were getting themselves into and they all thought they were going to have a good time with their friends and that it would be easy going. After sailing from Australia, they were on their way to England, but with not enough equipment and overcrowding they decided they would spend the winter in Egypt. In Egypt, only 8,500 Australian and New Zealand troops could be provided with tents. They did their training drills in front of the pyramids and Sphinx and would train for 8 hours a day, six days a week.

On enlistment day, my solider was given the rank of a gunner, to be a gunner you would need to have good eyesight, good aim, learn how to control any gun you were handed and to be able to reload as fast as possible, some weapons that would’ve been used by a gunner would be rifles, machine guns, artillery, mortars, tanks and aircrafts. With time, he was promoted to a corporal on 1/5/16.

Alban Leahy was first diagnosed with a bad dysentery problem and got admitted to a hospital ship called Ascanius on the 31/8/15. And then later in the war he diagnosed with a skin disease that causes rashes and itchy skin called scabies on 28/11/16. Alban Joseph LEAHY had won three medals which were the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. He was discharged on the 23/2/19 and had served for a total of 4 years, 189 days and from that the service abroad was 4 years, 67 days, the reason for his discharge was the end of WW1 which made him a survivor and he returned to Australia on the 8th of October 1918. After the death of Alban Leahy he was buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery, South Australia, Australia.

The word ANZAC stands for a solider in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (1914-18). Some qualities of what it means to be a ANZAC were, Mateship, tenacity, innovation and healthy disrespect for authority. These qualities have been adopted by the nation as the defining Australian Character. The ANZAC Spirit is a concept which suggests that Australian and New Zealand shared characteristics, especially the qualities the soldiers exemplified in WW1. Alban Joseph LEAHY showed his Anzac spirt the same as every solider by fighting for their country and showing the love they have to protect Australia, even after the injury’s he had suffered he fought his hardest until the battle had finished and went back to Australia surviving that horrific war and the conditions every solider had to face.