Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

23/09/1916

Date of Discharge

10/11/1916

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Ted'

Date of Birth

08/04/1899

Place of Birth

Bobeyan ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Cooma NSW (previously Bobeyan ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Mary Luton (mother), Cooma NSW

Service Number

41477

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

55 Battalion AIF

Like his cousin Cyril Brayshaw, Ted Brayshaw was born at Bobeyan where the Brayshaws and Crawfords (his paternal grandmother’s family) had lived since the 1840s. His family moved from the High Forest (at the southern end of the ACT) to the Murrumbidgee River in about 1905 and it was there that his father died in 1911. His mother married John Luton in 1916 and Brayshaw enlisted soon after, claiming to be eighteen years of age even though he was only seventeen. At the time it was the lead up to the first conscription vote held in October 1916 and this may have led to his decision to enlist. After a bout of influenza, Brayshaw joined the 55th Battalion and was sent to the recruitment camp at Liverpool near Sydney where he was released from the army for being under age.

After the war Brayshaw returned to the Bobeyan district and lived in the old Crawford homestead. He married Roma Oldfield from Naas on 22 December 1932 and they moved to Orroral in 1935 when Brayshaw began working for Andy Cunningham. Two years later Brayshaw became manager at Gudgenby. Brayshaw retired to Yarra near Goulburn and died there on 5 June 1985.

Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, weight 129 pounds, chest 33-35.5 inches, fair complexion, hazel eyes, brown hair, scar below the left knee, Catholic. 

Matthew Higgins, ‘Voices from the Hills. Places, People and Past Lifestyles in Namadgi National Park’, KHA 1990 (pp. 89, 90) 
Bruce Moore, ‘Cotter Country’, 1999 The Canberra Times - 22 May 1971 Monaro Pioneers Index - http://www.monaropioneers.com/pioneers.htm 
Image of Ted Brayshaw - ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collection HMSS 0257 Namadgi Sites Research Files, Roma Brayshaw collection
NAA RecordSearch – Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)