2/5 Australian General Hospital

Pte Gordon Beard

NX66095  

 

Gordon was born on 17 August 1920 at Manildra, NSW, the elder son of Frederick William Beard and Vera Elizabeth Rubie

 

On 4th December 1940, Gordon enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) and was attached to a Medical Unit. And in January 1941, while in camp in Sydney, volunteers were called for to join or re-enforce the 2/8 Australian General Hospital, which was about to sail for Singapore. About thirty in total, all raw recruits, volunteered and were placed on ‘stand by’. Roughly half were dispatched, but Gordon was among the ones not required.

 

From February 1941 until late May he was in camp at Tamworth, and was attached to the Base Hospital.

 

He embarked for the Middle East on 27 June 1941, arriving in Palestine on 31 July 1941 and was taken on strength with the 2/5 Australian General Hospital.

 

Late in 1942, he was in camp at Gaza when Volunteers were called for to go to Singapore.

 

One Doctor and three Orderlies were to staff a Regimental Aid Post on each cargo ship which would be in the convoy. It was winter time and they were moved to a transit camp at Port Said.

 

Singapore fell before they arrived and the ship returned to Sydney.

 

On 28 December 1942, he left Sydney on the Hospital Ship Manunda bound for Port Moresby, and the 2/5 Australian General Hospital.

 

Gordon later served with the Hospital Unit at Morotai Island and Balikpapan till the end of World War 11, and was finally discharged in Sydney on 22 February 1946.

 

 

Acknowledgment:

This information and photos was given by Gordon Beard with permission to copying and reproduction

 on the 2/5 AGH Website. – October 2010