SMITH, William Roy
| Service Number: | WX6833 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 20 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Warragul, Victoria, Australia, 8 January 1913 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | repairer (railways) |
| Died: | Mining Accident, Reedy, Western Australia, 25 August 1947, aged 34 years |
| Cemetery: |
Cue and Day Dawn General Cemetery, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 20 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX6833, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , from Fremantle; disembarked in Palestine on 2 Feb 1941 | |
| 22 Jul 1942: | Promoted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, previously appointed Lance Corporal 21 Aug 1941 but reverted to Private 22 Dec 1941 after being charged as AWL; appointed Lance Corporal again on 14 Feb 1942 | |
| 27 Jul 1942: | Imprisoned El Alamein, missing in action, only 5 days after his promotion to Corporal; reported POW 23 Oct 1942, interned camps 106 and 57; paid as Lance Corporal from 1 Jul 1943 | |
| 13 Oct 1944: | Embarked from UK (ex Italy) for Melbourne, Australia, arriving 16 Nov 1944; by train the next day for Perth, arriving 11 Nov 1944; admitted to hospital the same day and discharged from hospital on 11 Jan 1945 | |
| 28 Apr 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX6833, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour William Roy Smith's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
William was the only son of William Henry SMITH and Elizabeth MARTIN. He was known by his middle name, Roy, and had 2 sisters.
Roy married in 1936 to Jean Emma Margaret SINCLAIR, who was about 5 years his senior. They had a son named William (Bill).
From there, Roy's life was struck by a series of tragic events. His father William, a railway worker, was killed in a road accident near Donnybrook WA in Feb 1938 at age 57.
Roy enlisted in 1940 and embarked for the Middle East. He was captured as a POW in July 1942, and was on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. Roy was one of 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident.
Sadly, in Mar 1944 while Roy was interned in a POW camp, his wife Jean died back in Fremantle, at only 36.
Roy returned to WA in Nov 1944 and became a miner. He died on 25 Aug 1947, while working in the South Emu Mine, Reedy (near Cue). He was killed instantly when crushed by a trolley, which had broken away and fallen on to him from a distance of 80 feet. He was 33.
N.B. His papers indicate he was a Lance Corporal on discharge, not a Private.
Click images to start slideshow.