Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

06/04/1915

Date of Discharge

19/11/1918

Place of Enlistment

Liverpool NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

18/01/1898

Place of Birth

Bobeyan ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Cooma NSW (previously Bobeyan ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

May Brayshaw (mother), Sharp Street, Cooma NSW

Service Number

2088

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

3 Battalion

Cyril Brayshaw was born on 18 January 1898 at Bobeyan where the Brayshaws and Crawfords (his paternal grandmother’s family) had lived since the 1840s. Brayshaw’s father died when he was young and his mother moved to Cooma. He embarked a week after enlisting as a Private with the 5th reinforcements to the 3rd Battalion and upon arrival in Egypt in June 1915 Brayshaw spent time in hospital for an undisclosed reason but in August he was treated for VD. Brayshaw was sent back to Australia and to the Langwarrin Isolation Camp in Victoria for treatment but deserted from there in January 1916. Captured eighteen months later, Brayshaw was court martialled and sentenced to be of good behaviour for 12 months. In October 1917 he deserted from the camp at Liverpool and was captured in Marrickville three weeks later claiming that he was having his VD treated privately. He was sentenced to 12 months hard labour in Goulburn Gaol. Brayshaw was released on 9 July 1918 when his sentence was suspended due to his age, his contrition and desire to serve overseas. He was released back to camp in Liverpool and demobilised on 19 November 1918. Brayshaw died in Sydney on 21 January 1966.

Description - height 5 feet 4 inches, weight 129 pounds, chest 30-33.5 inches, fair complexion, hazel eyes, brown hair, Church of England.

Monaro Pioneers Index - http://www.monaropioneers.com/pioneers.htm
Manaro Mercury - 10 January 1916, 24 August 1917
Bruce Moore, ‘Cotter Country’, 1999
NAA RecordSearch – Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920), Series A471