Compressed fibre identity discs: Private W D Reily, 56 Battalion, AIF

Pair of compressed fibre identity discs, threaded onto a piece of khaki cotton tape that is knotted together. One disc is round, coloured a reddish brown, and has a single hole punched through it to take a neck tape, thong or chain. The other disc is octagonal, green, and had a hole punched at each end. Both discs are impressed on one side only '3695 REILLY WD 56BN A I F RC'. Note that the correct spelling of the surname was 'Reily'.

William Dickinson Reily was born at Batlow, New South Wales in 1868. Most of his working life had been spent as a miner at Adelong, NSW, before he enlisted in the AIF at the Goulburn Depot Camp on 9 June 1916, stating his age to be 41 rather than his true age of 47.

Reily was assigned as a private to C Company, Depot Battalion, and remained at Goulburn until 21 September, when he transferred to the Liverpool Training Camp near Sydney. Before his move to Sydney he appears to have been one of several groups of miners (experienced in mining, timbering, shoring, drilling and blasting), who were sent to the Royal Military College Duntroon, in Canberra, to assist in the instruction of officer cadets in mining and trench warfare, as the college did not have experienced instructors in this field at the time. He received a written reference relating to this work from Major E L W Brownell form the Trench Warfare and Bombing School at Duntroon in August 1917, and may have spent more time there in late 1916 and early 1917.

At Liverpool, NSW, Reily was nominally attached to both B and E Companies of 55 Battalion, but remained in Australia, possibly because his expertise was required at Duntroon. His original attestation papers having been lost, Reily re-enlisted in the AIF at Liverpool on 10 July 1917. He was allocated the service number 3695 and posted to the 10th reinforcements for 56 Battalion. Reilly left Australia for overseas service on 31 October, aboard the transport HMAT A14 Euripides. On arrival in England at the end of December his true age was revealed and he was posted to the 14th Training Battalion at Hurdcott in Wiltshire, rather than joining his battalion in France.

When the Battalion moved to nearby Codford in 1918, Reily accompanied it and was appointed an acting lance corporal, possibly as a musketry instructor. He left England to return to Australia on 16 January 1919.