Oldest brother Alfred Grainger, age 28, embarked on the Osterley in Sydney on 5 June 1915 and arrived in London on 18 July 1915. Immediately, he headed up to North Brierley in Yorkshire where, on 11 September 1915 in the Ebenezer Chapel of the Primitive Methodists, he married Sarah Wild. There was only a short honeymoon for on 21 September 1915, woollen spinner Alfred enlisted in the 245th Battery, West Riding Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. It is possible he did not join the AIF as he had intended the marriage to take place in his birth country of England.
On 14 April 1916, 776094 Driver Alfred Grainger disembarked in Boulogne, France for service on the Western Front. He would be away from Sarah for three years except for two, 14-day leave periods, one in November 1917 and one in November 1918. Alfred had a completely clean service record, no wounds, no sickness, no crimes and he was demobilized on 28 April 1919.
From early 1919, Alfred and Sarah had a bureaucratic war to fight over passage to Australia. Sarah applied for passage as an assisted immigrant, and wanted to travel with her husband. Alfred assumed he would get a free passage for himself and his wife but there was the rule that soldiers in Alfred’s position would only get a free passage to Australia if they had enlisted in British forces within a certain time of arriving in the UK. Alfred, being on his honeymoon, had missed the deadline by three days.
Eventually, the Australian authorities adjusted a few figures, refunded money already paid, and Alfred and Sarah left Tilbury together on 22 November 1919 on the Orsova bound for Australia. They arrived in Auburn in January 1920. Alfred and Sarah had no children. When Alfred died in 1947, he was buried in Rookwood Cemetery.
Further reading:
- Auburn remembers : remembering the men of Auburn who gave their lives in the First World War 1914-1918, by Ron Inglis, page 119 (Auburn, NSW : Cumberland RSL sub-Branch, 2020)