Thanks very much, Phenolphthalein
Two things keep coming back to me:
Firstly, from the book “From Glenquaich to New South Wales” by Julia Kable (my second cousin):
“Coral relates — ‘Aunty Nell said he died by suicide in the early 1930s at somewhere in the Riverina; she was notified, as the only identity he had was his army pay book, in which she had been entered as his next of kin.’ (Coral [Kable] was Julia’s aunt; Nell was Donald’s sister.)
And, secondly, from Donald’s army service record:
“ ‘Died 18 April 1937’ Historian 4/5/38 ”
If only we could reconcile the two things.
While family recollections suffer from imperfect understandings and imperfect memories, there must have been something in the story - concrete details like the mention of the pay book don’t usually come from nowhere (unless someone surmised it and it later became “fact”).
And the details in the service record must have come from somewhere. Perhaps, as Dr Nelson indicated in his recent email from AWM, that “somewhere” might be records now long culled.
Was there a decomposed body with his army pay book on or near it that prompted the army to record his death, but was not accepted as sufficient evidence for the coroner or the BDM to say that it was other than an “unknown” body? But you would think there would be a record and/or a newspaper report somewhere of such an occurrence.
I think the one hope left is that in addition to the service record there is still an army medical record held by the NAA - who have indicated they would reply sometime in November.
Failing that, after probably hundreds of hours now collectively spent by the wonderful people (and their friends and rellies) through this great site, we may have to conclude that Donald managed a remarkably well-executed “Harold Holt”.
I’ll post the details from NAA’s reply as soon as it comes in.
Cheers and thanks again,
Peter
