Albert Matthew DRURY #863

Indigenous Australian, Albert DRURY, 5th Light Horse Regiment

Albert Matthew DRURY was born in 1892 at Nelligan, NSW to Matthew and Ruth Drury (nee Willoughby). He was employed as a labourer at Farleigh, Mackay when he volunteered to serve with the first AIF in December 1914. Drury embarked on board HMAT Star of England from Brisbane in April 1915 and landed at Gallipoli in May. Drury was slightly wounded in November, but remained with his battalion. Allied troops were evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915 and the 5th Light Horse returned to Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt to gather strength.

The 5th Light Horse's main activity in 1916 was long range patrolling in the Sinai Desert, followed by the battles of Gaza in Palestine, and holding the west bank of the Jordan River in 1918.

Drury spent some time in the infectious diseases hospital in Cairo, suffering from Malaria and abscesses, common among troops serving in the Jordan Valley. Drury embarked for Australia in June 1919, where he returned to live and work at Farleigh near Mackay.

Read more ...

• Service record: DRURY, Albert Matthew
• Embarkation roll
• Obituary, Daily Mercury, 5 February 1940, p5
• Scarlett, Philippa. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander volunteers for the AIF: the Indigenous response to World War One. Fourth edition, Indigenous Histories, Macquarie, ACT, 2018
• One of the soldiers featured in SLQ’s HistoryPin Collection
• Queensland’s Indigenous Servicemen Digital Story and Oral History

The information in this blog post has been researched by State Library staff and volunteers, it is based on available information at this time. If you have more information that you would like to share or further research uncovers new findings, this post will be updated.