Hi there,
The National Archives of Australia has digitised the WWI service files for all the volunteers who served in the Australian Imperial Force in WWI. They are all easy to access online, no charge, no need to log in or register. Here is the live link to Jack Benhamin Stanley WEST's forty page file
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8381504 There is also a more recent file for him, but it has not yet been digitised. The online index for that second file has his date of birth as 6 November 1898.
https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/search-people/researching-your-family NSW BDM online index has Jack BS WEST birth registered with parents as Oscar FW and Amy M, registered in the Canterbury district - which would include more than just the suburb of Canterbury. The reference no. is 29602/1898. The 1898 indicates the year. You can drill down to confirm the exact date of the event for those types of registrations on that online index.
So from this link
https://www.nsw.gov.au/topics/family-history-searchclick on 'Start searching your ancestry' thus :
https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search?then click on births
https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/births?then enter the family name (west) and first given name (jack) and scroll down to Date of Event from.
When there, enter 'from' as 01/01/1898 and 'to' as 31/12/1898. and notice his was the only birth in that name in that year.
THEN use the '
modify criteria' button ... so scroll back down to that Date of Event option.... change the 'from' to read 01/07/1898 (so second half of the year).... and he is still there, so repeat but change 'from' to 01/10/1898, next try changing the 'from' date to read 01/11/1898. - and yes he is still there... so then try from as if 01/12/1898 - and he is no longer listed. so far we now know he was born in November 1898.
So keep same focus and try 02/11/1898 as the 'from', and 07/11/1898 as the 'to' and YES, he's back. so now to check which date is the official one... - well leave the 'from' as 02/11/1898 and change the 'to' to 03/11/1898 - he's not there.
so try 06/11/1898 to 07/11/1898 ... he is back. Final check ... try 07/11/1898 to 08/11/1898 - he's not there.
So his official date of birth is 6 November 1898.
Jack Benjamin Stanley West was born 2/11/1898 in Campsie New South Wales. He was a soldier in the Australian Imperial Force. He was injured in France & sent to England 9/4/1919 for RTA. As you know he married Ethel 27th June 1919. He was then sent home to Australia sailing on the Mahana from England 26/9/1919 arriving in Sydney 12/11/1919 & discharged from the force 2/2/1920 in Sydney. Ethel was on the same ship.
JM