EMMINS, William Edward
| Service Number: | 1536 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 47th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | London England, April 1895 |
| Home Town: | Stepney, Norwood Payneham St Peters, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Bootmaker |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 7 June 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient), Prospect Roll of Honour A-G WWI Board, St Peters Heroes War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 13 Feb 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 1536, 9th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Seang Choon embarkation_ship_number: A49 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Feb 1915: | Embarked Private, 1536, 9th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Seang Choon, Brisbane | |
| 7 Jun 1917: | Involvement Corporal, 1536, 47th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 1536 awm_unit: 47th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Corporal awm_died_date: 1917-06-07 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Adelaide Botanic High School
William Edward Emmins was born in April of 1895. He was born in Hackney, London, to his father Thomas James Emmins, and Mother, unknown. Emmins also had two brothers serving in the war. His brother Arthur Oliver Emmins, who was killed in action on 11 April 1917, and Edward William Emmins, who returned to Australia on 13 April 1919. William was 5’6.25” and weighed approximately 140 pounds. Before enlisting in the army, William was a bootmaker. He, his father, and presumably his mother lived at 18 Sussex Street, Lower North Adelaide, South Australia.
Emmins first enlisted on the 30 of December, 1914. His enlistment records show that he was 22 years old, but he was actually only 19 at the time. He embarked on 13 February 1915 on board the HMAT A49 Seang Choon from Brisbane Queensland. The unit name was 9th Battalion, 3rd Reinforcement. He then was involved in the Gallipoli Campaign, as a Field Ambulance. His enlistment rank was Private, but before his last battle he had been promoted to Corporal. Emmins also had some previous military service before enlisting, serving for 6 months in the Royal Field Artillery ‘A’.
Emmins’ last fight was in the Battle of Messines, which was fought between the British and the Germans at Messines Ridge in Belgium. British soldiers had placed bombs underneath German lines to blow them apart from the inside. There were 19 completed mines in German territory, holding around one million pounds of high explosives. While these bombs were highly effective, killing over 10,000 German soldiers when detonated, William Edward Emmins was shot in the head and died instantly on the 7 June 1917. He was in the 47th infantry battalion, and was ranked Corporal at the time.
Emmins sadly has no known grave, but is commemorated at the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, in Belgium. His name has been/will be projected onto the exterior of the Hall of Memory on Sun 07 May 2023, Mon 24 July 2023, Thu 02 November 2023, Wed 14 February 2024, and Tue 14 May 2024.
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