IRELAND Robert Thomas (Bob)

Military

Application to Enlist in the Australian Imperial Force was made on 15 November 1917. This was a preliminary application with the applicant awaiting a call-up, which did not come until April 1918. Bob€™s formal date of enlistment was 16 April 1918. By that time five of his first cousins (two Clugstons and three Irelands) had already enlisted. The death of cousin Tom Clugston k.i.a in Belgium October 19, 1917 had been the trigger for his November application.

The Chronicle 26 April 1918 p3 reports that Robert Thomas Ireland is Eumundi`s latest recruit.

On enlistment Bob was 20, 5€™8.5€,147lbs., occupation dairy farmer, next of kin father, George Ireland of Eumundi.

Bob€™s preference was to join a Light Horse Regiment but at that late stage of the war the reinforcements were not initially allocated to a particular regiment.

Embarked from Sydney on the Wiltshire on June 10, 1918, disembarking 5weeks later at Suez, where he moved into a Central Training Depot for Reinforcements.

When he was finally taken on strength as a reinforcement in the 11th Light Horse Regiment on 23 November 1918, the war was already over. However while waiting to embark for return to Australia, the Egyptian revolt commenced in March 1919. The regiment again became operational and the revolt proved short-lived with order restored in a few weeks.

Bob embarked on the HT Morvada on July 22, 1919, arriving in Sydney on August 28, 1918.

Bob was discharged on 14 September 1919

Medal €“ British War Medal

Personal

Bob was born at Brooman near Ulladulla on March 31, 1898 €“ the seventh of nine children of George and Ellen (nee Clugston) Ireland, dairy farmers. (3 brothers, 5 sisters).When he was 4 or 5 the family moved to Newrybar in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. When he was 13 the family moved again, this time to Eumundi, Queensland. There he finished his schooling at Eumundi State School.

After WW1 Bob married Dot Best at Yandina in 1922. Dot was the second youngest of nine children in the pioneering Yandina family of George and Emily (nee Walters) Best. Then Bob and Dot moved to the Boat Mountain district near Murgon, where they ran a dairy and grew peanuts. They commenced as share farmers but were later able to purchase their own properties.

They had 2 sons and 3 daughters.

During World War 2 Bob served as an officer in the Volunteer Defence Corps. Post World War 2 Bob continued farming but developed a sideline of harvesting (along with coordinating the harvesting by other local farmers) the leaves of the duboisia tree which grew wild in the district, and had properties useful for medicines. This venture involved a number of overseas trips, mainly to Germany, to investigate markets.

Bob died in 1968 following a heart attack and was buried in Murgon.

Eumundi & District Roll of Honour Board, Eumundi Memorial School of Arts Hall, Memorial Drive, Eumundi

Eumundi Methodist Church and Sunday School Honour Board, Eumundi Museum, Memorial Drive, Eumundi