World War Two Service

Veteran Details

Name	CAIRNS, GERALD DOWNS
Service	Australian Army
Service Number	35920 (VX97160)
Date of Birth	21 Apr 1927
Place of Birth	SURREY HILLS, VIC
Date of Enlistment	24 Apr 1945
Locality on Enlistment	CAMBERWELL
Place of Enlistment	ROYAL PARK, VIC
Next of Kin	CAIRNS, DAVID
Date of Discharge	12 Dec 1946
Rank	Sapper
Posting at Discharge	12 AUSTRALIAN SMALL SHIPS COMPANY
Prisoner of War	No

Unit History

Unit Name	Start Date	End Date

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Field	Description
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.