George Randolph Collins is second from the left

Service Number: 1967 Rank: Lieutenant Enlistment Unit: 3rd Field Artillery Transferred Unit: Not known or not applicable Date of Enlistment: Not known Enlistment Age: 28 years 6 months Fate of person: Returned to Australia

Biographical Details

Randolph was the youngest of eleven children born to the Federal politician, G.T. Collins and Ursula nee McEachern. He attended Geelong Grammar School and was an accountant when he enlisted on 26 August 1914. He was over six feet tall and tipped the scales at 12st 10lbs. He joined his unit, the 3rd Field Artillery at Lemnos on 4 April 1915 and took part in the original landing at Gallipoli. He was temporarily hospitalised at Heliopolis with a back injury and at the end of the Gallipoli campaign he was admitted to hospital in Cairo with jaundice. In May 1916 he left for the Western Front but in August he was transferred to London and attached to the Army Pay Corps. Towards the end of 1917 he was selected for Officer training and was commissioned in February 1918. Randolph returned to Tasmania at the end of the war, married Geraldine Fairthorne in 1921 and established an accounting firm. He died at his home in Kenyon Street on 5 June 1942. He is listed on the memorial as Randolph Collins but on his enlistment papers as George Randolph Collins.

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