Rudolph Farnol Reynolds

REYNOLDS, Rudolph Farnol- – – – SPC 1900-1905

DoB:- – 25 November, 1890, Norwood, SA

Father:- – George Alfred Reynolds

Mother:- – Mary Jane, nee Korff

Service No:- 17420

Rank:- – Private

Unit:- – 11th Field Ambulance – Australian Army Medical Corp (AAMC)

Rudolph Reynolds enlisted on 6 October 1916. He was 25 years and nine months old, unmarried, and worked as a bank clerk. He was five feet, four and three quarter inches tall, with a fresh complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. He embarked from Adelaide on 23 June 1917 aboard the Borda, and disembarked at Plymouth, England at the end of August.

Private Reynolds was attached to the Australian Army Medical Corp and underwent further training at the AAMC Depot in England until October 1917. On 1 October, he proceeded to France and was taken on strength by the 10th Field Ambulance. The following month, on 7 November, he was transferred to the 11th Field Ambulance where he remained for the rest of the war.

Reynolds was in the field for many months, but by May 1918 had developed an abscess on his right foot which developed into sepsis in his leg. He was hospitalised away from the front and received treatment for two months at Havre. He was considered well enough to rejoin his unit by mid July 1918.

On 23 July 1919, Private Reynolds returned to Australia aboard the Main, arriving in Australia on 5 October, and receiving his discharge from the AIF on 6 November 1919.

It is likely that when Rudolph returned to Australia that he returned to South Australia to stay with his mother who still lived at Mount Gambier. The South Australian Police Gazette of 1931 records that he had his bicycle stolen, but it was returned a few days later.

Rudolph next appears in the electoral rolls of 1937, living at 340 St Kilda Road, South Melbourne. He was working as a canvasser at the time. By 1949 he was working as a navy clerk and living in South Yarra. He remained there until the electoral rolls of 1963, after which the College could find no further record of him.

The College was unable to find a death or cemetery record, and could not ascertain if he was married.