Reginald George Grano

GRANO, Reginald George- – – – – SPC 1901-1905

DoB:– – c1888, Ararat

Father:– – Theodore George Grano, Solicitor

Mother:- – Kate Cecily, nee Patton

Reg Grano was a boarder from Ararat. He passed his Matriculation year in 1905, in the following subjects: Latin, French, Physics, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and History.

Service No:– 3300

Rank:- – Staff Sergeant

Unit:- – 6th Field Ambulance

Reg Grano enlisted in the AIF on 11 March 1915. He was 27 years and seven months old, a single man, five feet, nine and three quarter inches tall, with a dark complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair. He had been an apprentice chemist’s assistant for four years, in St Kilda, Melbourne.

He embarked on 4 June 1915 from Melbourne aboard the Ajana. By 30 August he was serving at Gallipoli on the Turkish Peninsula. He survived Gallipoli and proceeded back to Alexandria, Egypt for a rest and further training. He proceeded to Marseilles, France on 27 March 1916, and was attached to the 6th Field Ambulance.

Later that year, on 1 September 1916, he was invalided to the War Hospital on Warren Road, Guildford, England with influenza. It must have been severe, as he was not returned to his unit until 16 January 1917.

By late January he was back in France, and promoted to the rank of Sergeant in France on 15 March, and on 11 May 1916 promoted to Staff Sergeant. He was awarded leave from France between 18 November to 2 December 1917.

On 12 March 1919 Staff Sergeant Grano was returned to Australia on the Eastern. He was Mentioned in Despatches by Sir Douglas Haig on 16 March 1919, for -‘Conspicuous services rendered by you whilst a member of the AIF’.

Reg Grano was discharged from the AIF on 17 August 1919.

In 1923, Reg Grano married Lillian Beryl Bolton Bach, and they lived at 52 Laburnum Street, Blackburn. They had three children, one boy and two girls. Reginald George Grano, a pharmacist, died on 14 August 1965, aged 77 years. He was buried at Burwood Cemetery, Victoria.