CUMING, Robert Gordon
| Service Number: | 1278 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 17 September 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Driver |
| Last Unit: | 4th Field Artillery Brigade |
| Born: | Bridgewater, Victoria, Australia, 24 July 1894 |
| Home Town: | Bendigo, Greater Bendigo, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Driver |
| Died: | Military Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 July 1926, aged 31 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 17 Sep 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1278, 4th Light Horse Regiment | |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Sep 1915: | Involvement Private, 1278, 4th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Hororata embarkation_ship_number: A20 public_note: '' | |
| 27 Sep 1915: | Embarked Private, 1278, 4th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Hororata, Melbourne | |
| 11 Mar 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Gunner, 2nd Divisional Ammunition Column, Egypt | |
| 12 Nov 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Driver, 4th Field Artillery Brigade, France | |
| 5 Nov 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Driver, 1278, 5th Field Artillery Brigade , Gas - Belgium | |
| 8 Jul 1918: | Embarked AIF WW1, Driver, 1278, 4th Field Artillery Brigade, RTA per D19 HT Carpentaria | |
| 11 Nov 1918: | Discharged AIF WW1, Driver, 1278, 4th Field Artillery Brigade |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Chris Buckley
Driver Robert Gordon Cumming (Service No:1278) enlisted in the AIF on 17 September 1915 and was a Private with the 4th Light Horse Regiment when he embarked from Melbourne for Egypt on board HMAT Hororata on 27 September 1915. He served in Egypt as a Gunner with 4th Light Horse Regiment and 2 Divisional Ammunition Column and in 1916 was a Driver with 4th Field Artillery Brigade in France. In November 1917 Driver Cumming was WiA in Belgium - gassed - and hospitalised in England. On 9 August 1918 Driver Cumming embarked for the RTA on board HT Carpentaria D19 and was Discharged on 11 November 1918. Driver Cumming was one of six brothers and a step brother who served in WWI.
Born in 1894 in Bridgewater Victoria, John was the sixth of eight children of James Cumming (b1862 in Wigtownshire, Scotland) and first wife Mary Jane Redwood (b1865 in Bridgewater, Victoria). James was a Farmer when he immigrated in 1884 and was working as a Chaff Cutter in Bridgewater, Victoria in 1888 when he and Mary married. James and Mary settled in Bridgewater where they raised their family and James managed the Cream Factory and the Bendigo Butter Factory. He established his dairy farm at Flora Hill near Bendigo and became an acknowledged expert on pasture and cream and butter manufacture. James and Mary divorced in 1903 - James remarried and Mary relocated to Bridgetown WA where she was Proprietoress of the Bridgetown Coffee Palace.
John (aka Gordon) enlisted as Robert Gordon - some Army records have him as Robert or Robert Gordon and Cuming or Cumming and his Service Number as 1278 or 1231 (which was his Discharge Number). John was a Driver at his father's Flora Hill Dairy when he enlisted in 1915. He returned to Australia with Nephritis and was deemed medically unfit for further service. John died in the Military Hospital in Melbourne in 1926.