Fargo

Thanks for the enlightenment Lang. Forgive me for this sidetrack to the thread;
the previous owner of one of my traction engines was Freddy Evans who used it on what may have been a soldier settler block at Bringabilly. He was predeceased by both his children and wife so his history has become a bit of a cold case. If I have the right bloke his service No is Q104931 but there is a Service/reference no of 3920 relating to a previous record and he was in Army/Flying Corps. He enlisted at Toowoomba and Warwick depending which form you look at (maybe one was for WW2?)
Grateful for any interpretation.
Did some archive digging; so 5'6" red haired Freddy indeed did sign up in  Feb 1916 to 1st AIF, schooled in Lewis gun and served in France but then invalided back to UK July 1918. Discharged as invalid (post influenza disability - I wonder if that was a kind way of diagnosing ptsd?), arriving back in Australia 1919. Signed up again 1943, knocking on age 48,  but didn't get much further than Warwick and discharged self to return to protected employment of farming.

Steve

His first number was from WW1. As I said, they reorganised the numbers in 1921.

He obviously joined up again in WW2. The "Q" prefix indicates enlisted in Queensland in the Australian Military Forces and he was liable to serve anywhere on Australian territory (later extended to Bougainville). At his age he was probably in a support/administration/training job in Australia.There were plenty of older blokes re-enlisted to let the young sprogs do the front line stuff. My grandfather put his age down by 13 years (to meet the AIF overseas age limit) and served in New Guinea and Japan Occupation Force in supply and canteens where young blokes would have been wasted.

His number started with "VX" - enlisted in Victoria and the "X" after the State letter meant he was in the AIF - Australian Imperial Force and liable for duty anywhere in the world.