By CASEY NEILL
EDWARD James Regan was court-martialled three times during his World War I service – once after shooting himself in the foot.
He was given a soldiers settlement in Nar Nar Goon when he returned from the battlefield, farmed potatoes – and was councillor Angela Long’s grandfather.
“Three court-martials!” she exclaimed.
“I think he was trying to avoid going to the front.”
Private Regan was a 29-year-old cook from Coolarook when he signed up with the 13th Light Horse Regiment.
He embarked on HMAT Hororata A20 on 27 September 1915.
Six months later, on 15 March 1916, he was charged with “committing an offence against the property of the inhabitant of the country in which he is serving” and “an act to the prejudice of good order and military discipline”.
Private Regan faced further charges over a drunken incident on 14 June 1916 in which he broke plates outside a French cafe and military records also show he was disciplined after creating a disturbance outside an officers’ billet and being out after 9pm when not on duty.
He carelessly wounded himself in the foot “through negligently handling a rifle” in 1917 and also left hospital without a pass.
Cr Long said he was killed in a dray cart accident on his property in 1929.
