Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#3736 DORRINGTON William Charles                       9th / 49th Battalion
 
There is very little information available about William Dorrington, save for the few facts contained in his attestation papers. According to William he was born in London’s East. His parents at the time of his enlistment were living in West Ham. His father did not complete the Roll of Honour Circular regarding William’s death and therefore we do not know where or if he went to school (his one signature on his attestation papers has the appearance of having been carefully written in a hand unused to that task); nor is there any information about when he arrived in Australia or the circumstances under which he travelled. His name does not appear on the Queensland Immigration lists prior to 1912.
 
William presented at the Brisbane recruitment office on 6th September 1915. He stated his age as 23 years, his occupation as farmer and gave his father’s name, Richard Dorrington of Hollybush Street, West Ham, London as his next of kin. He stated his address as Wondai. William spent a short period of time in a depot battalion at Enoggera before being allocated to the 12th reinforcements for the 9th Battalion. The reinforcements boarded the ‘Itonus’ in Brisbane on 30th December 1915 and sailed for Egypt. On 26thFebruary 1916 at the AIF base at Zeitoun, William was reallocated to the 49th Battalion, a newly created battalion which formed part of a new division; the 4th Division AIF. In June 1916, the men of the 49th boarded transport in Alexandria and sailed for the French port city of Marseilles. The 4th Division was posted to a relatively quiet sector of the western front near the border with Belgium where the new battalions trained in the procedures of trench warfare.
 
The huge battle of the Somme commenced on 1st July 1916 and although things did not go well and little ground was gained, General Douglas Haig continued to throw his resources at crushing the German defence. By the middle of July, the 5th Australian Division had been put into the front line for an attack at Fromelles, which ended in disaster. At the end of the month, the 1st and 2nd Divisions had been committed to the front at Pozieres, at the cost of many casualties. The 4th Division was ordered into the line at Pozieres to hold the positions gained previously and again the casualties were high.
 
It would appear that William survived his baptism of fire at Pozieres in August but he was not so lucky at Mouquet Farm, in sight of Pozieres, on 3rd September. William’s records indicate that he received a head wound on 3rd September and he was evacuated to the French coast and then via a hospital ship to the Western General Hospital at Bristol.
 
William was discharged a month later and spent time at the Weymouth details barracks awaiting further movement orders. Perhaps he took the opportunity to travel to London to visit his parents. On 13thDecember, William began his crossing of the English Channel to the Etaples base and a week later rejoined his battalion.
 
While fighting on the western front had more or less paused during the winter, the Germans had secretly constructed a heavily fortified line of defences some 15 kilometres behind the positions they were in possession of on the Somme. With the coming of spring, the German forces began a carefully planned and managed withdrawal to this new position, which the British called the Hindenburg Line. The 4th Division which had been holding the line at Flers and Bapaume were tasked with keeping in touch with the enemy’s withdrawal.
 
On 5th April 1917, the 49th Battalion in conjunction with two other battalions of the 13th Brigade successfully took a railway cutting at Noreuil, almost a kilometre from the first line of Hindenburg defences. The records indicate that William Dorrington was killed in action during this engagement. There are no further details available about his death and if he was in fact buried, all trace of such a burial was lost by the end of the war.
 
William’s mother was granted a small pension of 15 shillings a fortnight by all attempts to communicate with her were unsuccessful and the payments were withdrawn. There is no record of William’s personal effects being sent to his parents.
 
William Dorrington’s name does not appear on any war memorial in Australia with the exception of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. He has passed from the collective memory without leaving a trace. William is commemorated on the panels of the Australian National memorial to the Missing at Villers Bretonneux, along with 10,000 other Australian soldiers who fell in France and have no known grave.