World War I Commemorative Website

War Memorial Hall  c1929

Memorial Hall circa 1929
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Ashley Roy GRIST

GRIST

Ashley ‘Roy’ Grist was born on 30 November 1889 in Kew, Victoria. His parents were Hubert Charles Cook and Isabella (née Hutchings) Grist. His mother’s name was Mrs Thompson at the time of Roy’s death, having divorced Hubert Grist. He attended Scotch from 1904 to 1909. Roy was an outstanding sportsman: he was in Head of the River winning crews in 1907 and 1908, first crew and first football team in 1909. He was also a Prefect in 1909. He was a member of the school Cadets.

Ashley was a grazier when he enlisted on 3 October 1914 at Melbourne. He served in the 5th Battalion with the rank of Private. His Regimental Number was 1083.

He died on 30 March 1916 at Kew, at home at Sackville Street. He was 26 years of age.

Service record

Roy Grist was working on the land in Tasmania with his brother at the outbreak of war. He went to Victoria to enlist and joined the 5th Battalion. He had only been in the unit two weeks when it sailed for Egypt, and thus there is no photograph of him in uniform. He was in the Public Schools Company with other Scotch Collegians.

He participated in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was initially reported wounded – and indeed the 1915 The Scotch Collegian listed him as such – but was then diagnosed with pleurisy contracted in the period 25-30 April and sent to Malta. In June he was sent to England, where he was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis and after treatment in hospital and a sanatorium he was sent home in November 1915. British and Australian army authorities felt that the wet conditions and strain of service at Gallipoli had stirred up an old tubercular condition.

In January 1916 a doctor reported on Roy, who told him that he had an attack of pleurisy in 1910 but had been apparently cured at a sanatorium. Roy said that on 26 April 1915 he had an attack of pleurisy and been evacuated. The doctor noted that Roy looked sallow and anaemic and that he was gradually and persistently losing weight and strength. The doctor expected that it would take 6 months for Roy to recover, and noted that Roy wanted to be discharged so as to look after his own treatment at his mother’s home.

His service file contains a letter from his mother asking that he be sent home as she understood, on the basis of what the doctors told her when he was previously ill, how to treat him (see below). The expected improvement in Roy’s health did not occur, and he died in March 1916. It appears that he was still not discharged from the AIF at the time of his death. He is included in the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour. By 1919 his mother had died too.

Roy Grist is buried in the Box Hill General Cemetery, Melbourne.

Photographs and Documents:

gristAR

Part of a letter from Isabella Thompson, Roy’s mother, asking that he be sent home where she could treat him

Sources:

  1. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
  2. Mishura Scotch Database
  3. National Archives of Australia – B2455, GRIST A R
  4. Scotch Collegian 1916
  5. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=120558

Page last updated: 11 November 2015