Alfred John VALE
Joined the 8th Battalion and embarked from Melbourne aboard the Benalla on October 19th.
Service Number = 283
Date of Death = 22 November 1968
Rank = Private
Unit = 5th Division Artillery
Age = 88
Location = Ballarat New Cemetery, Church of England G, Section 07, Row 1, Grave 21
Alfred John VALE (SN 283), originally from Beaufort, was a 30 year old blacksmith from Talbot Street in Ballarat when he enlisted on August 18th 1914. He joined the 8th Battalion and embarked from Melbourne aboard the Benalla on October 19th. He sailed to Egypt where in March he was hospitalised with otitis media. He served at Gallipoli until October when he was evacuated to hospital on Lemnos suffering from influenza. Shortly after this he was slightly wounded, sustaining a gunshot wound to his left foot, and removed to hospital in England. In July 1916 he arrived in France but just three months later was sent back to England suffering from dysentery. He did not return to France until December 1917 when he was transferred to the 5th Division Artillery. After the war he returned home on the Kildonan Castle, disembarking at Melbourne on May 7th 1919. He died in November 1968 aged 88.