James Joseph McGrady

McGRADY, James Joseph- – – SPC 1914

DoB:- – 1898, Berrigan, NSW

Father:- – Edward McGrady, Royal Hotel, Berrigan, NSW

Mother:- – Catherine

James Joseph McGrady was a boarder at St Patrick’s from NSW.

Service No: – 6821

Rank:- – Private

Unit:- – 37th Battalion

James McGrady enlisted in the AIF on 17 February 1916 at the age of 18 years and one month. He was five feet, seven and a half inches tall, a single man who worked as a clerk. He was described as having a dark complexion, brown eyes and brown hair.

Private McGrady embarked from Melbourne aboard the Ulysses on 25 October 1916, disembarking at Plymouth, England on 28 December. While undergoing training in the UK, he was admitted to hospital in February 1917 with scabies, and then in March for 51 days when he was treated for venereal disease.

He was well enough by 29 May 1917 to proceed overseas to France. In the following month, he was reprimanded at Rouelles for being in possession of a dirty rifle.

While in France, Private McGrady was severely wounded in action on 4 October 1917. He sustained wounds to his leg, foot and right thigh. He was sent to the 10th Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) on 5 October, and by the 14 October was transferred to England and admitted to the Central Military Hospital at Winchester.

Private McGrady spent several weeks recuperating in the UK, and by December had been transferred to Sutton Veny. He must have been feeling better, as he went AWL from 3pm on 24 December to 5pm on 27 December 1917. For this crime he forfeited four days’ pay. In January 1918 he underwent another operation on his thigh. Although he was able to walk by March 1918, by that month he was preparing for his return to Australia for a -‘change’ due to the condition of his wounds. He boarded the Marathon on 15 April which took him back to NSW. He was discharged from the AIF on 12 June 1918.

James was 20 years old when he arrived back home to resume civilian life. Electoral rolls show that by 1930, he was a farmer in the Riverina of NSW. He married Evelyn (Mollie) Grace Gorey in 1935 at Griffith, NSW. They had two children, Terence who was born in 1936 and died at the age of two years and nine months on 31 October, 1939, and Rosemary.- Both Mollie and Rosemary outlived James, who died on 28 July 1944 at the young age of 46 years. He was buried at the Catholic Cemetery Rookwood, NSW.