from the Genealogical Records of the Doughty Family,
by Laurence Mynott Ward

Ralph Dorchel Doughty was born on 1st October 1891, the eighth and youngest child of William and Susanna Doughty of Stratford, New Zealand. He went to Australia in 1913 (to work) and at the beginning of World War I joined the 1st Australian Artillery Division and fought at Gallipoli and then in France. He was mentioned in dispatches, and awarded the Military Cross and was made a Lieutenant. He died of wounds on 25th July 1917 (aged 25). He was interred in Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium. Ralph Doughty was in active service for a total of nearly 2 years before he became a WWI casualty. The last sentence of his final diary is a fitting way to end such a record, from such a war hero.

Ralph Doughty's Diaries.
The five day by day diaries were transcribed through the hard and careful work by J.M. Webster & G.C. Danvers and the Introduction was written by a local historian Murray Moorehead - with many thanks from the members of the Doughty, Ward, and Kivell families.

Transcriber's Note.
Some words have eluded us during this transcription and these are indicated ... and our guesses [Gillagan?]. Ralph's own bracketed comments are in round brackets (thus) and our explanations or expansions of his slang terms are indicated in a manner similar to our guesses but without the question mark [thus].

Web site Notes.
The diaries written by Ralph Doughty as well as his photographs, plus images from the Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium can be read and viewed by clicking on the links to the left and then clicking on the diary you would like to read. Viewing Ralph's personal diaries you can either choose to view them day by day as he wrote them or you can view them monthly.