Also named on Toowoomba Mothers’ Memorial and P.A.F.S.O.A. Beaconsfield Lodge Honour Board.
Joseph Gratton arrived in England in January 1917 and landed in France in October assigned to the 4th Machine Gun Battalion. On 10 October 1918, while returning from leave in Ireland to England aboard RMS Leinster, the ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank with the loss of 565 soldiers, sailors, airmen, nurses and civilians, including Joseph Gratton. His body was recovered and buried in Dublin on 14 October. (The U-boat was later lost in a minefield with its entire crew while attempting to return to Germany.)
