On 11 December 1916, John Mahony, a farmer from Deloraine in the state’s north, presented himself to the Claremont Army Camp for enlistment. A week later he was passed fit and on 10 February 1917 was allotted to the 2’d Machine Gun Company. It was not until 20 April 1918 that he was actually taken on strength in the field with the 1″ Machine Gun Battalion at Camiers.
Private Mahony survived the last seven months of the war without incident. In February 1919 he was granted leave to the United Kingdom, re-joining the battalion, which was still in France, on 2 March 1919. He was eventually marched out to England on 18 April 1919 and returned to Australia per the Port Darwin on 12 June 1919.
John Mahony later married Dorothy May and became the proud father of Vera. John returned to farming, working a property at Montumana in the state’s north-west and later at Gordon in the south, John Mahony died at St. Johns Park Hospital in 1967 aged 79 years.
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