Private Gregory Marshall 'Jock' Pirie

Gregory Marshall “Jock” Pirie was born at Kelvin, Glasgow, Scotland on 29 September 1894 to parents Thomas Annand Pirie and Jane Jeanie Pirie (née Marshall). He was the second born of six children, among four brothers and two sisters. Pirie had moved to Tattingstone, England, by 1910: aged 16, he was under training at His Majesty’s Royal Naval Training Establishment at Shotley. Pirie had previously been employed as a sheet iron worker.

Pirie was a seaman aboard the British second-class cruiser HMS Cambrian which was attached to the Australia Station from 1905. Pirie is recorded as deserting from the ship at Sydney on 1 October 1913, along with three other seamen, before the ship returned to England on 13 October 1913.

Pirie was employed as a labourer before he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).

Pirie enlisted in the AIF at Bathurst, New South Wales, on 29 July 1916 and was attached to the 7th Reinforcements for the 58th Battalion. He embarked from Sydney on the troopship Afric on 3 November 1916 and disembarked at Liverpool, England on 9 January 1917. He was then sent to the 15th Training Battalion at Hurdcott, England, for battle training. Following a short period in hospital during March 1917, Pirie was sent to France on 20 March and taken on strength with the 58th Battalion on 26 March.

On 12 May, during the second battle of Bullecourt, Pirie was wounded in action and admitted to the 3rd Field Ambulance with gunshot wounds to the left leg and arm. He was returned to England on the hospital ship Stad Antwerpen on 18 May and admitted to the Horton County of London Hospital for treatment. In August 1917, Pirie was granted leave, and later reported to No. 1 Command Depot at Perham Downs for light duties. On 2 November, he returned to France and rejoined his unit on 14 November.

On 25 November 1917, Pirie was detached for duty with the 5th Division Concert Party known as “The Kookaburras” and remained with this concert party until 28 October 1918, when he rejoined his unit. The concert party had been established towards the end of 1916 and performed along the Western Front and in various towns until early 1919. During his time with the concert party, Pirie peformed in a concert “somewhere in France” on 23 August 1918. At this concert, he sang “Old home town of mine” and “Love to Scotland”. Pirie was detached again for duty with the concert party from 21 February 1919 until 24 April, when he was sent to England in preparation for return to Australia. Pirie embarked for Australia on the troopship Orita on 23 June 1919 and disembarked on 6 August 1919. He was discharged on 14 September 1919.

Pirie married Hilda Millicent Deane sometime before 1930. There is no record of children.
Following his discharge, Pirie became a member of the Whizz Bangs Concert Party and is recorded with the troupe performing at His Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne during 1920, Traralgon (January 1920), Geelong (February 1920) and Ballarat (July 1920). Pirie was billed as the Ragtime King. The Whizz-Bangs appear to have performed until early 1930, by which time Pirie was performing in a new troupe, The Diggers Concert Party (also referred to as the Diggers Revue Company). It was formed under the auspices of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League (now RSL), in Broken Hill, New South Wales. This troupe performed in Broken Hill and other regional towns in New South Wales until 1933. At this time, Pirie appears to have been working as a labourer at Broken Hill.

From 1934 to 1937, Pirie was living at Balranald, New South Wales and his occupation is recorded as a miner. Pirie is recorded as living in Urana, New South Wales in 1943 and as a railway fettler in Pedirka, South Australia and Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the same year.

Gregory Marshall Pirie died at Mount Margaret, Western Australia, in 1949. Hilda Pirie died at St Kilda, Victoria in 1970.