DELANEY, Richard

Richard Delaney was Irish by birth and came from Galway. He was 35 years old, single and working as a sawyer when he enlisted on 19 July, 1916. He was Roman Catholic in faith and living at 162 Powlett Street, East Melbourne, within easy walking distance of St. Patrick's Cathedral. His next of kin was his aunt, Delia Massina, who lived nearby at 10 Grey Street with her husband, Louis Anthony Massina, a bootmaker and their daughters, Edith and Victoria. They may have owned 162 Powlett St., because in 1919, the Massina family was living there. By 1926, Louis and Delia were livng at 119 Victoria Parade, with Edith livingat Lauriston Hall, East Melbourne.

After training, Richard Delaney was placed with the 5th Battalion, 12 Reinforcements. The 5th Battalion had been at Gallipoli and fought at Anzac Cove, Krithis and Lone Pine. In mid-December, 1915, they withdrew from the Gallipoli Peninsula back to Egypt. Patrick Delaney and the other reinforcements left Melbourne on 23 November 1915, on the HMAT Ceramic A40 and he was taken on strength with the 5th Battalion on 20 February, 1916, at Serapeum. Here he troops underwent further training, then departed form Alexandria on board the Briton to join the  B.E.F. ,  disembarking at Marseilles on 30 March, 1916.

Here, Richard Delaney was transferred from the 5th Battalion to the 1st Anzac Salvage Corps, made up of Australian and New Zealand troops, and consisting of one officer and 69 other troops. The Salvage Corps were separate from the Battalions. They were not in the fighting, with their role to recover equipment from the battlefield, in itself a dangerous task, but one which cut down on waste and thus helped secure precious extra shipping space on supply ships. In February, 1917, the Anzac Corps were dissolved and the 1st Australian Corps replaced them. Under the command of General Monash, the Australian Corps was 200,000 men strong, made up from British, New Zealand and Australian Divisions unde one command. Monash used them to smash the Hindenburg Line and bring the war to a conclusion. Corps troops were men allocated to the Corps, but not to the fighting Divisions and were responsible for the administration of the area in which they operated. While Patrick Delaney was part of this group, it is not clear what role he played. From his record, it owuld appear that he was still part of the 1st Salvage unit. 

Going into battlefields day after day, among the dead bodies, the rats, the shell holes and the smell of decay, bringing back the rifles fallen from dead soldiers' hands, and whatever else might have been still of some use in the next encounter, probably under fire as he worked, must have been horrific. From early 1917 onwards, Richard Delaney appears to be under great stress. On 7 July, 1917, he went AWL from camp, returning a day later. He was fined 16 days pay and sentenced to 14 days detention. On 8 September, he was sent back to England on leave, returning to his unit on 24 September. On 4 November he was brought in ill to the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance A36 station, then admitted to convalescent depots at Havre and Harfleur, diagnosed as 'unfit'. He marched in to his unit again on 29 November, but was returned to hospital on 4 December. On 12 January, 1918, he was charged again with being AWL and returning drunk to the No. 4 Convalescent Depot at Havre. he was also charged with bringing a bottle of liquor back to the depot. On 19 January, he was sent back to hospital, and from there to England. His record notes that he was suffering from 'debility and age'. He was sent to the No 2 Command Depot at Weymouth on 19 January, then transferred to the No 4 Command Depot at Hurdcott.

In March, he was discharged from the army, due to  'Stricture and Premature Senility'. He returned to Australia on 19 March, 1918 on board the HMAT Field Marshall, but on 27 April, was left at the Durban AIF Depot. he was then transferred to another ship to come home, but went AWL at Fremantle on 15 May, missing embarkation to Melbourne. He re-embarked on 26 May and was finally discharged from the army on 4 July, 1918, at Melbourne.

There are too many Richard Delaneys on the Electoral Roll to trace his life from here. In 1919 and 1921, he was living at 162 Powlett St., East Melbourne, and back in his old job of sawyer. In 1926, he was at 102 Powlett Street, working as a postman. After that, he seems to have quit East Melbourne, but it is impossible to distinguish him from the other Richard Delaneys on the roll, both in Victoria and other states. A Richard Delaney died in Essendon in 1959, with his father named as John and his mother as Annie, nee Gosling, but with no other detail, there is no way of telling if it was him.