FURPHEY, Ivan

Herbert Ivan Furphey was born in 1895 to Thomas Furphey, a manufacturer, and his wife Elizabeth Mary, nee Wright. He was the eldest of six children and the only boy. In 1915, when he enlisted as Ivan Furphey, he was living at 4 Jolimont Terrace, Jolimont, with his family. He was single and by occupation, a clerk, and named his mother as next of kin. This may have been because his father had ill-health - Thomas Furphey died in 1925. 

Ivan enlisted on 17 August, 1914, at Albert Park. He already had some military training as a member of the 31st Battery A.F.A. and after training was placed with the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade with the rank of Sergeant. He embarked for Galliploli on 20 October, 1914, on board HMAT Shropshire A9. He emknbarked from Alexandria on the O.C. Condon Castle served in the action of Gallipoli, but towards the end of the campaign, as his mother wrote  'he was ill just before the evacuation from Gallipoli'. It seems to have been a bad dose of bronchitis/influenza and  on 15 December, 1915, he was sent to the No. 3 Auxiliary Hospital at Cairo. He was discharged on 28 December and afterwards a stint at Base Depot Details, was  transferred to the the 23rd Battery, Australian Field Artillery. 

Ivan Furphey proceeded from Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary force, disembarking at Marseilles on on 6 April, 1916. Proceeding to the Western Front, the 23rd Battery joined the first Division. Ivan would have been in the action in July 1916, when the British Offensive on the Somme began. The First Division AIF fought at Pozieres, and Fromelles, with huge loss of life, but fortunately Ivan was not one of the casualties. He was by now a Corporal.

On 25 August, 1916, he was taken on strength of the 5th D.A.C. from the 1st Division Artillery, where he remained until January, 1917, when he was again transferred, this time to the 13th Field Artillery Battery. In February, he was promoted to Sergeant and then sent to the School of Instruction on 10 May, 1917, then to Gas School on 4 July, 1918. He was given leave on 27 September, 1917, rejoinging his unit on 18 October. On 4 July, 1918, he was sent to Gas School in France, but caught influenza on 5 July and was sent to the 12 U.S.A. General Hospital in Rouen, then transferred to Engand. It was probably the 'Spanish' flu and Ivan must have had it badly, because on 10 July, he was transferred back to England, first to the 5th Southern General Hospitla at Portsmouth, then to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital on 26 July and finally on 13 August, to the No. 2 Command Depot at Perham Downs, marching in on 14 August, 1918. On 16 August, the Army authorities found that he was ' unfit all services more 6 mts' . Ivan Furphey was returned to Australia  due to 'Debility and Anaemia' on 27 October, 1918, just two weeks befor the war ended on 11 November, 1918.

From 1919-1925, Ivan Furphey was living at The Olives, High St., Glen Iris and workign as a clerk. From 1931-1936, he lived at Toodyay, Nungarin, with his wife, Vera and was a farmer. By 1943, he and Vera had moved to Knunjaglyn, Collie, Western Australiaboth farmers; IN 1954, they were at Preston Road, Collie, with Ivan a dairy farmer and Vera, a milk vendor. In 1963, in his late sixties, Ivan was at 73 Mangalup Rd., Collie, and Vera was engaged in home duties. The last entry in the Electoral Rolls is 1972, when Ivan would have been 77 years old. Vera was no longer with him, and was was in retirement at 24  Pearl Rd., Scarborough. Herbert Ivan Furphey died in Perth, Western Australia, in 1975.