Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 5054 HUTCHINSON William James             26th / 49th Battalion
 
Will Hutchinson was born in Dubbo NSW to parents Joseph and Mary Hutchinson. Will attended school at Dubbo before the family moved to Toowoomba, Qld. In 1914, Joseph Hutchinson died leaving his wife dependant on her son, who was probably no more than 16, for support. Will obtained work in the Bell district as a farm labourer and as soon as he reached the age of 18, presented himself for enlistment in Toowoomba. The pay for an ordinary soldier of 6 shillings a day (one shilling of which was deferred) was well above what he could earn as a rural labourer and may well have been the motivation for Will’s enlistment.
 
Will attended the recruiting office at Toowoomba on 19th January 1916. He stated his age as 18 years and named his mother of Little John Street, Toowoomba as his next of kin. Will travelled by train down to Enoggera where he was placed in a depot battalion before being allocated to the 13th reinforcements of the 26th Battalion in April. On 4th May, the reinforcements boarded the “Seang Choon” in Brisbane and disembarked at Tel el Kabir in Egypt a month later. The 26th Battalion, part of the 2nd Division AIF, had left Egypt a month earlier and was already stationed in the northern sector of the Western Front near Armentieres. Will and the rest of the reinforcements remained in Egypt while the authorities decided what to do with them.
 
The great Somme offensive of 1916 began on the 1st July and by the end of July and beginning of August, the Australians of the four divisions in France had faced enemy action for the first time. The 2nd and 4thDivisions in particular sustained heavy casualties at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm, and the 5th Division was so badly mauled at Fromelles that it was ruined as a fighting force for the next 12 months. To make good the losses, the reinforcements in Egypt were sent to the large British depot at Etaples on the French coast just south of Boulogne. Will arrived at the 2nd Division Base at Etaples on 2nd October where he was reassigned to the 49th Battalion, part of the 4th Division AIF.
 
Will had to journey north into Belgian Flanders to join up with the 49th which was in billets near Ypres. Soon after marching in to camp on 17th October, Will was on the move again when the 13th Brigade, which included the 49th Battalion, was ordered south to the Somme where they went into the line near Bapaume in late November 1916.
 
Douglas Haig’s great Somme offensive had spluttered to a halt in the mud and frost of the approaching winter. Haig wanted to push the front forward from Flers towards the high ground of Bapaume to get his men out of the mud. During an attack against entrenched German defenders at Flers, it was reported that Will Hutchinson had been killed in action. He was buried at the AIF Burial Ground Cemetery at Grass Lane, Flers. Will was 18 years and 9 months old.
 
Will’s mother received a parcel of her son’s personal effects which included an identity disc, a rubber stamp, a prayer book and rosary and a damaged wristwatch.
 
When the graves registration units began to record the details of each burial, somehow Will’s age was incorrectly recorded as 25. When his mother saw a copy of the cemetery register, she wrote to the authorities pointing out that her son was only 18 when he died. The response was that we are sorry for the error but the pages have already been printed. Will’s headstone contains a personal inscription chosen by his mother: MOURNED BY THOSE WHO LOVED HIM R.I.P. The headstone records his age incorrectly as 25.