Cyril Roy Samers

SAMERS, Cyril Roy- – – – SPC 1909-1910

DoB:- – 1893, Bridgewater, VIC

Father:- – John James Samers

Mother:- – Henrietta, nee O’Brien

Cyril Samers was a boarder at St Patrick’s College from Bridgewater, a small place on the River Loddon in north central Victoria. In his first year at the College he came second in the Commercial Class, and was a keen debater.

Service No:- 17

Rank:- – Private, later Lance Corporal

Unit:- – 7th Battalion

Cyril Roy Samers enlisted on 17 August 1914, soon after the declaration of war. He was 21 years and four months old, five feet and seven inches tall, with a fair complexion, grey eyes and fair hair. He stated his occupation as Clerk.

Private Samers embarked at Melbourne aboard the Hororata on 19 October 1914 en route to Egypt. In early September 1915 he was admitted to hospital at Mustapha with a flesh wound to his thigh, and for most of that month was in hospital with general -‘weakness’. Then, in November 1915 he was admitted to No. 2 General Hospital in Cairo with constipation.

He was appointed to the rank of Lance Corporal on 18 January 1916 and was transferred to duty in France as a Transport Driver. In January 1917 L/Corporal Samers was hospitalised at Southall, England for 10 days with laryngitis, and although he was discharged from hospital on 20 January, he seemed to be plagued with illness for the majority of his time on service.

On 18 October 1917 he proceeded to Officers’ Cadet School England and placed on the Supernumeracy Lists. By January 1918 he was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital with neurasthenia, or shell shock. He did not recover from this ailment although he received treatment in several hospitals in England.

On 13 March 1918 he embarked from England aboard the Dunvegan Castle for his return to Australia, for discharge due to neurasthenia.

Cyril married Rose Evelyn Dwyer in Bendigo in 1924, when he was 31 years of age. They had one child, a boy names William James who was born in 1927.

Cyril Roy Samers died -‘on or about’ 21 December 1958, at 49 Dundas Street, Albert Park in Melbourne, at the age of 65. The cause of his death was attributed to coronary sclerosis and myocardial scarring. At the time of his death, Cyril was a widower, and one can only assume that he died alone as the precise date of his death was not known.

Cyril was buried at the Springvale Cemetery, Victoria.