Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Trooper William Joseph Lakey (Service No:V246212) had served twelve months with 17th Light Horse Regiment prior to enlisting in the ACMF on 29 January 1942, and was attached to 6 Motor Training Regiment at Discharge on 25 February 1943 (Compassionate Grounds). Trooper Lakey was the eldest of four siblings - Lindsay, Percy and Walter - who served in WWII.

Bill was born in Newstead via Castlemaine, Victoria in 1910, eldest of nine children of William Lakey (b1887 in Bradford, Victoria) and Selina Lock (b1892 in Gowar, Victoria). William was a Labourer in 1907 when he and Selina married in Newstead, and settled at Welshman's Reef via Maldon, where they raised their family and William was a Labourer and Woodcutter. In the late 1920s William and Selina moved to Maldon, where William worked with two of his sons as a Miner at the Old Union Mine.

Bill worked in Maldon as a Labourer, Slaughterman and Blacksmith, and in 1934 married Agatha Eileen Code (b1908 at Campbell's Creek, Victoria). Bill and Eileen lived in Maldon, and in 1941 Bill was a Driver in Castlemaine when he enlisted in the Army. In 1946 Bill and Agatha were living in Castlemaine, where Bill worked as a Driver, before moving to Bendigo  where Bill worked as a Public Servant through the 1950s. In the early 1960s Bill and Agatha settled in Mildura, where Bill worked as a Public Servant. Agatha died in 1997 and Bill in 2011.