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Stanley MOLLISON MM

MOLLISON

Date of birth6 April 1889
PlaceEdinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
ParentsAlexander and Mary (nee Dall) Mollison
Date of death2 August 1959
PlaceGeelong, Victoria, Australia
Age70
Scotch Year(s) Staff 1913 to 1920

Service record and post-war life

Scottish-born Stanley Mollison joined the staff of Scotch College in 1913 as a ‘Physical Culture Teacher’. In Scotland he had served in the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry as a signaller for 5 years. He was 25 years old when he enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne on 20 August 1914. At 5 feet 6 ½ inches tall he only just made the 5 feet 6 inch (168 cm) minimum. He was made a Corporal in the 1st Division Ammunition Column.

In April 1916 he joined the 1st Trench Mortar Battery. He was sick in hospital for six days in August 1916, but later that month was awarded a Military Medal. The recommendation for his award, reproduced below, says that at Pozieres on 25 July 1916, Stanley kept his mortar going until out of ammunition, despite ‘very severe’ enemy shelling. The recommendation said that he and his detachment of medium trench mortars won ‘great admiration’ from the infantrymen beside them in the trenches, and that this was one of several occasions where Mollison had ‘shown great courage and devotion to duty under very heavy fire.’ Stanley was hospitalised again for 11 days in February-March 1917. At that time he was an Acting Sergeant, but was officially promoted Sergeant in April 1917. The following month Stanley was sent to be a Cadet at the Royal Artillery Cadet School in St John’s Wood, England.

Stanley was made 2nd Lieutenant on 6 October 1917, proceeded to France on 19 October and rejoined the 1st Division Ammunition Column on 25 October. He was promoted full Lieutenant on 6 January 1918 and was taken on strength of the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade on 20 March 1918. He was briefly back in the Divisional Ammunition Column in July and August but in September returned to the 2nd FAB. In March 1919 Stanley returned to Australia.

Stanley returned to teaching physical culture at Scotch and was still named in the 1921 Scotch prospectus. By 1922 he was a commercial traveller, and by 1931 he was farming at Invergordon. Stanley served in the Australian army in World War II from 1940 to 1943, reaching the rank of lieutenant in the 7 Auxiliary Horse Transport Company. By Stanley had returned to Melbourne, and was working as a clerk. He died at Geelong in 1959. In 1926 he had married Hazel Alma Gower (d. 1974).

Photographs and Documents:

mollisonS

Recommendation for Stanley Mollison’s Military Medal.

Sources:

  1. Australian War Memorial – Honours and Awards
  2. Mishura Scotch Database
  3. National Archives of Australia – B2455, MOLLISON STANLEY
  4. Scotch Collegian 1916 and 1918
  5. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=211452

Page last updated: 11 November 2015