DEVEREUX, Matthew

Born in Maryborough, Melbourne, by 1917 Matthew Devereux was 33 and 3 months old when he enlisted at Redfern, Sydney, NSW on 18 September, 1917. His connection with East Melbourne is therefore tenuous - his next of kin was his father, John Devereux, whom he claimed lived at 61 George Street, East Melbourne. In fact, no Electoral Roll record shows him there, but Nellie Devereux, who seems to have been Matthew Devereux's wife, lived there from 1917-1919, according to the Electoral Roll.  Matthew Devereux was a miner in 1913, but by 1917 was a wharf labourer living in Sydney and, with the war in progress, he probably did a good deal for the war effort before he enlisted.

He was sent for training, most probably at Liverpool Camp, and then attached to the 18th Battalion 21 Reinforcements AIF, embarking from Sydney on HMAT Ulysses A38 on 19 December, 1917. On 16 January, 1918, they disembarked at Suez. Here the new soldiers underwent more training before leaving from Port Said on HMT Seasand Castle, stopping at Taranto, then arriving at Southampton on 13 February, where they disembarked. On 13 May, 1918, they left England for France and finally, on 14 May, Matthew Devereux marched in to the New Zealand Infantry Base Depot at Etaples and was taken on strength with the 18th Battalion. The German Spring Offensive had failed to capture Amiens and Matthew Devereux and the 18th Battalion were part of the push to push the enemy back to the Hindenburg Line. On 8 August, 1918, they were at Amiens, At St. Quentin on 31 August and on 3 October, they were fighting in the Beaurevoir-Fonsonne Line at Montbrehain. On 3 October, Matthew Devereux was wounded in action, with a shell wound to his left knee. He had also suffered a gas attack. He was admitted to the 12th Casualty Clearing Station, then on to hospital at Rouen, before being transferred back to England on HMT Carisbrook Castle and sent to the 5th Southern General Hospital at Portsmouth, where he arrived on 7 October. 

On the day the war ended, 11 November, 1918, Matthew Devereux was released from hospital and marched in to the No. 2 Command Depot at Perham Downs. He left England to return to Australia on 15 January, 1919, on board the City of Exeter, disembarking in Melbourne on 2 March. On 29 April, he was discharged form further service, diagnosed as 'medically unfit - disability - post gassing'. He returned to 61 George St., East Melbourne, where Nellie was still living. Work must have been hard to find: in 1923, Matthew Devereux's address was Post Office, Hay, NSW; in 1924, he was at Spring Ridge, NSW; in 1930, he was living in North Wagga and working as a labourer; in 1932, he was still in southern NSW, this time at Wallendben, near Harden, a labourer. From Charlton, Victoria, a letter came to the military authorities in 1932 asking for a copy of the discharge papers of a J. Griffith, 2nd Pioneer Battalion, on behalf of himself and Matthew Devereux. They were finding it hard to be given  'odd jobs in the bush, not much use without them'.  

In the meantime, Nellie had moved out of Melbourne and was living at 2 Bridge St., Ballarat, and working as a waitress. She was there until 1937, all the time without Matthew, and then there is nothing further on the Electoral Roll. Matthew Devereux died on 30 January, 1936, in Brisbane, Queensland