HALES, William Barrington
| Service Numbers: | 1763, 2385 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 5 May 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1) |
| Born: | Holloway, London, England, July 1876 |
| Home Town: | Manjimup, Manjimup, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Wartminster Grammar School, Wilts, England |
| Occupation: | Farmer |
| Died: | Killed in action, Mouquet Farm, France, 3 September 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 5 May 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1763, 11th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Jun 1915: | Involvement Private, 2385, 11th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Karoola embarkation_ship_number: A63 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Jun 1915: | Embarked Private, 2385, 11th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Karoola, Fremantle | |
| 17 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 2385, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Aeneas embarkation_ship_number: A60 public_note: '' | |
| 17 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 2385, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), HMAT Aeneas, Fremantle | |
| 3 Sep 1916: | Involvement Private, 1763, 51st Infantry Battalion (WW1), Battle for Pozières , --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 1763 awm_unit: 51 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-09-03 |
Help us honour William Barrington Hales's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
William Barrington Hales was an Englishman who arrived in Western Australia in around 1910. He wasn’t a young man, enlisting at almost 38 years of age in May 1915.
William had served with the Matabeleland Mounted Police during 1896 and later in the Southern Rhodesia Volunteers.
William had two short service periods with the AIF. He was taken on strength of the 11th Battalion at Gallipoli on 4 August 1915 and was severely wounded in the chest by a bullet or shrapnel two days later. He was quickly evacuated to Egypt and spent several months in hospital being treated. He was invalided to Australia for discharge during October 1915. The bullet was apparently still embedded within his body.
He managed to enlist again with the 2nd reinforcements for the 51st Battalion and arrived in England in mid-June 1916. He was taken on strength of the 51st Battalion in France on 21 August 1918, only two weeks before they suffered heavy casualties making the last Australian attack on Mouquet Farm. Hales was reported missing after the battle. His Red Cross wounded and missing file is quite detailed and it seems Hales was killed in a shell explosion. One of the witnesses said he was a Peninsular man and ‘the best of soldiers’.
His brother in England filled out William Barrington Hales’s roll of honour form, stating he been in the Rhodesian Police, Matabele War and the South African War.