| Name |
The individual's full name as recorded on the official
record of service document.
If the individual served under an
alias, that information will also be displayed where known.
Nicknames will not be displayed, as they are not recorded on the
service record.
If a woman married while enlisted, and the
military authority amended the service record to her married
surname, then that surname will be displayed. This approach has
been taken so that the displayed surname aligns with the surname
recorded on the paper service record. In such cases, a maiden
name has not been collected. |
| Service |
Reference to one of the three services of Australia's
defence forces - Royal Australian Navy (RAN); Australian Army;
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF); or the Australian Merchant
Navy (MN).
Where an individual served in more than one of the
three services, each period of service will be displayed as a
separate record. To view all records for an individual, select
'ALL' in the Service box. |
| Service Number |
The number allocated to the individual on enlistment into
one of Australia's three armed services. This number may be
numeric, or an alpha/numeric combination. RAN officers, some RAN
ratings and merchant mariners do not have a service number. In
these cases, the words 'not applicable' will be displayed in the
Service Number field on the Service Record screen.
In selecting
the information to be displayed on the website, the Department
was aware that some Defence Force members had multiple periods of
service. The Nominal Roll aims to show a separate entry for each
continuous period of service within the one armed service so that
breaks in service are clear. However, particularly for Army
veterans, the way the individual's service dossier was managed
during, and after, the War made this a difficult task. In some
individual cases, each period of service was filed on its own
dossier with its unique service number. In other cases , the
periods of service had been amalgamated into one service dossier
and stored under the one service number. This service number is
usually the number for the latter period of service. The
Department will, on a case by case basis, review an individual's
dossier/s and amend the details displayed on the Nominal Roll.
The service number under which the paper service record is stored
is displayed first. Any other known service numbers relevant to
this period of service are displayed in brackets.
Where an
individual served in more than one of the three services, the
record(s) will be displayed for each service. |
| Date of Birth |
The date nominated by the individual as their date of
birth. Generally for merchant mariners, only the year of birth is
recorded. |
| Place of Birth |
The city/town/country nominated by the individual as
their place of birth. |
| Date of Enlistment / Engagement |
Army and RAAF - The date an individual signed their
enlistment Attestation Form.
RAN - The date an individual signed
their Record of Service card.
Merchant Navy - The date a merchant
mariner engaged on a ship immediately prior to or during the war. |
| Locality on Enlistment / Engagement |
The residential address nominated by the individual as
being their home address at the time of enlistment/engagement. |
| Place of Enlistment / Engagement |
Army and RAAF - The city/town/country where the
individual was recruited into Australia's defence forces.
Merchant Navy - The port where the merchant mariner signed on as
a member of a ship's crew at the commencement or during the war. |
| Home Port / Port Division |
The port designated as the individual's home port on the
Record of Service card. |
| Next of Kin |
The person nominated by the individual as being the next
of kin during World War Two or at time of discharge. |
| Date of Discharge / Last Engagement |
The date the individual was officially discharged from
Australia's defence forces. For merchant mariners the last
engagement date is the date they left their last ship during or
immediately after the end of the war. |
| Date of Death |
Indicates the date of death, during war service, of the
individual as recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
For the purposes of the Commission, the period of World War Two
is 3 September 1939 to 31 December 1947.
Where an individual was
discharged and subsequently died from war service prior to 31
December 1947, the Commission records their death. In these
cases, both dates will be displayed. |
| Rank / Capacity |
The substantive rank (excludes brevet, honorary, acting
or temporary) held by the individual at their date of
discharge/death.
For merchant mariners it is the capacity (rank)
held on their last ship during or immediately after the war or at
the time of their death. |
| Posting at Discharge or Death / Last Ship |
The last posting in which the individual served prior to
their discharge or death. In collecting this information, every
endeavour has been made to avoid postings that were considered
non-effective(for example, a hospital unit) or to which an
individual was allotted for discharge purposes only.
For merchant
mariners, 'last ship' indicates the name of the ship on which the
mariner served at the war's end or at the time of their death. |
| WW2 Honours and Gallantry |
Indicates any Imperial honour or gallantry award
conferred on an individual during World War Two, and that
entitles the recipient to use a post-nominal after their name.
For example, the Military Medal (MM).
As the
Mentioned-in-Despatches (MID) does not entitle the recipient to
use a post-nominal, it is not displayed on the Nominal Roll. In
deciding not to display the MID, the Department also took into
consideration that the MID was not a medal in its own right.
Rather, the award of an MID is signified by the Oakleaf device
which is always worn on another medal. For World War Two service
the MID is worn on the ribbon of the War Medal, 1939-1945.
Furthermore, the MID does not appear on the Order of Wearing
Australian Honours and Awards approved from time to time by the
Governor-General or in past London Gazettes. The latest Order of
Wearing is listed in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No.
S101 of 4 April 2002. Gazette S101 may be viewed at the
http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au website. This position is
consistent with both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and
the Office of Australian War Graves who do not include the MID on
their official commemorations.
Campaign stars, service medals,
commemorative medals, or medals and honours conferred by a
foreign country, are also not included.
The issuing of honour and
gallantry awards and service and campaign medals are the
responsibility of the Department of Defence. |
| Prisoner of War |
Indicates whether the individual was a prisoner of war.
It does not indicate in which theatre of war they were captured. |
| Roll of Honour |
Indicates the individual's name is listed on a community
Roll of Honour in Australia. This information has been sourced
from individual casualty records held by the Office of Australian
War Graves. |
| Unknown |
Some records may contain the word, 'Unknown'. This means
that there may have been no such information in the service
record or the information was indecipherable. |