Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

Kaighin C  Pte        Cyril Peel Gray             22    Clerk,  PMG    Single    Meth        

Address:    Moonee Ponds, Park St, 43    

Next of Kin:    Kaighin, Mary Ann, mother, 43 Park St, Moonee Ponds    

Enlisted:    12 Sep 1918        

Embarked:     Pte Kaighin died of C S meningitis at Fairfield Hospital prior to embarkation.

Prior service: senior Cadets 4 yrs 58A &  Moonee Ponds, 4 yrs CMF 58  Inf Regt

Relatives on Active Service:

Kaighin-T-R-Gunner-19801  brother

Trooper Cyril Peel Gray Kaighin

Rod Martin

This is a sad tale of blighted expectations.  Twenty-two-year-old Cyril Kaighin, a clerk in the postmaster-general’s office in Melbourne, enlisted in the army on 2 September 1918 and passed the riding test required for membership of the Australian Light Horse.  His rank was then designated as "trooper" and he volunteered for service in Egypt.

Cyril was born in Bright, north-eastern Victoria, in 1896.

 Cyril and his older sister, Mabel Mona (b. 1891), about 1900

(Rodd Johnson/Greg Kaighin)

In 1902, when Cyril was about six years old, his oldest sister, Amy, was married in Bright.

 Mabel Mona, at front second from the left, and Cyril, on the ground, third from the right.

 Bright, Victoria.  (Rodd Johnson)

Sometime before 1918, the family moved to Moonee Ponds in Melbourne and lived at 43 Park Street.

 (realestate.com.au)

By September 1918, Cyril was living at that house with his mother.

Cyril was a slight young man, standing about 166 centimetres tall and weighing only sixty-six kilos.  He had brown hair and brown eyes.  Despite his small stature, however, he was obviously a keen, military-minded man, having spent four years in 58 Militia Battalion, and four years in cadets before that.  Why he did not join the army on his twenty-first birthday or even earlier if he could have obtained his mother’s permission, is unknown.

Cyril enlisted at Broadmeadows Army Camp on 2 September 1918 and remained there until 7 October.  On that date, he was admitted to the camp hospital and diagnosed with meningitis.  This disease is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining around the brain and the spinal cord, leading to a stiff neck, headaches and fever.  It can be caused by bacteria or viruses.  Of the two types, viral and bacterial, the latter is far more serious, and can be fatal.  Today, the disease can be prevented by the use of vaccines that became available in the 1970s.  Once contracted, it can be treated with intravenous antibiotics.  However, between twenty and fifty per cent of sufferers in western countries still die from the complaint.  Of course, there were no vaccinations or antibiotics available in 1918, and much less was known about the disease then.  Cyril was facing an uphill battle as soon as he became sick. 

Cyril slowly but surely deteriorated, and was transferred to Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, where he died on 13 December.  He was buried in Fawkner Cemetery on 16 December 1918.  He never got to Egypt, and he never had the opportunity to put his riding and military skills to the test.  Aged only twenty-two years and ten months, his was a grievous loss to his family and his country.  Sadly,  the Imperial War Graves Commission misread his full name and recorded it as ‘’Cyril Pell Gray Kaighin’’ on his gravestone. His first middle name, as noted in his attestation papers and his war record, was ‘’Peel’’.

(Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

Sources

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Australian War Memorial

En.wikipedia.org

https://www.healthline.com

https://www.realestate.com.au

Johnson, Rodd and Kaighin, Greg

National Archives of Australia

www.kaighin.com

Date of death:  13/12/1918 

FAWKNER MEMORIAL PARK CEMETERY

C P G Kaighin on the Melbourne General Post Office, Roll of Honour,

"To the Glorious Dead".

War Service Commemorated

Moonee Ponds Methodist Church *

MUIOOF Loyal Albert Lodge (Kaighin P)

Melbourne GPO Glorious Dead  

In Memoriam

KAIGHIN. —In sad but loving memory of my dear
friend, Cyril, who passed away on 13th Decem-
ber, 1918.                                                                                                                                                        
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost a while.
 —(Inserted by his loving friend, M. Stray.)                                                                                                         

The Argus 13 December 1919
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4638210

No further references in The Argus to 1921.