Daly, George

No.3819 – Private George Daly – 51^st Battalion AIF

George Daly was born in Chewton Victoria in 1882 to Jane Anne Daly. George moved to Western Australia where he worked as a miner and stayed with his brother W.H. Daly of Hammad St East Fremantle and also the Fordham family of George St East Fremantle.

On the 30^th November 1915 he went to the Perth recruitment office and enlisted into the AIF. He was passed as fit with the medical officer finding George to be 5 feet 9 inches in height; weight of 136 lbs; chest measurement of 36-38 inches; fresh complexion; brown eyes and light brown hair. His religious denomination was Roman Catholic.

George was initially allotted to No.38 Depot and was then added to the 9^th Reinforcements to the 28^th Battalion. He trained with this group in WA until they embarked from Fremantle on the 12^th February 1916 aboard the H.M.A.T. “Miltiades”. After arriving in Egypt George was sent to the 7^th Training Battalion and stayed there until the 2^nd April 1916 when he was marched out to join the new 51^st Battalion. He trained with the 51^st in the desert until the end of May 1916. On the 5^th June George boarded a transport ship in Alexandria harbour that would take him to France. Arriving at Marseilles on the 12^th June 1916, George and his battalion were sent to the north of France in the region of Fleurbaix.

They would only spend a few weeks in this vicinity and were soon sent south to join in the Battle of the Somme. The 51^st Battalion as part of the 13^th Brigade came into the Somme battle in mid August 1916 when they attempted to advance towards Mouquet Farm. The attack was unsuccessful and they were soon relieved but on September 3^rd launched another attack on Mouquet Farm.

Though they captured the Farm the Germans were able to surround the companies of the 51^st with the result that many men were killed or captured. George was initially listed as missing but as no reports of being captured by the Germans had come through at a court of enquiry held in April 1917, George was declared as being killed in action. He has no known grave though at the time a Battalion Memorial Cross was erected at Mouquet Farm for those killed on September 3^rd 1916.

George is officially commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial. His brother John was killed with the 12^th Battalion at Gallipoli in 1915.