William Murdoch LE BRUN

William Murdoch LE BRUN Update Details

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LE BRUN, William Murdoch

Service Number:	3393
Enlisted:	Not yet discovered
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	7th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Not yet discovered
Home Town:	Not yet discovered
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Not yet discovered
Died:	Killed In Action, France, 2 June 1916, age not yet discovered
Cemetery:	Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix
Memorials:

World War 1 Service

11 Oct 1915:	Involvement Private, 3393, 7th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Nestor embarkation_ship_number: A71 public_note: ''
11 Oct 1915:	Embarked Private, 3393, 7th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Nestor, Melbourne

Private William Murdoch Le Brun

From Sandra Bailey-Haynes

. Unit: 7th Battalion A.I.F. (Infantry) WW1. His Service No: 3393.

He joined on the 13 July 1915 aged 20 years and 1 month. He embarked Melbourne onboard HMAT A71 “Nestor” on the 11 Oct 1915 and joined the 7th Battalion at Te-El-Kebir, Egypt on 7 Jan 1916.

He was admitted to hospital at Serapeum, Cairo in January with mumps and discharged a month later, re-joining his Battalion in March. He embarked Alexandria on the 26 March 1916 for France, disembarking at Marseilles and the 7th Battalion entered the front-line trenches on the Western Front for the first time on the 3 May 1916.

William was a young man on a mission. A 20-year-old man desperately wanting to fight in the war with his friends. Yet not even 12 months from his enlisting he was dead…William was the second of my Great Uncle’s to sign up, and sadly the first to be killed in action.

He was born in Collingwood on the 19 August 1895 and went to Darlimurla State School in Victoria. His parents Murdoch & Rebecca Le Brun. He was the 3rd of their 10 children and was the younger brother of George John Le Brun.

He saw much action and was at work on a trench when a shell burst almost over him, a piece of casing striking him in the body. When he was found, he had a disc of identification, prayer book, razor, pipe, handkerchief, buttons, a gun metal watch, broken mirror, belt & badges, letters, coins, and a wrist strap on him.

William Murdoch Le Brun wrote letters home to his parents and one that was published in the Gippslander and Mirboo Times had a poem he had penned whilst on the HMAT “Nestor”.

This is, Will’s Poem;

For the sake of those I dearly love,
And in the cause of Liberty,
I’ve left my southern sunny home,
And crossed the wide and trackless sea.

Heaven guard and bless you, dearest one,
While I in foreign lands may roam,
Though I am absent in the flesh,
My tenderest thoughts are of my home.

Good luck to you whilst I’m away,
I know the parting cost you pain,
My earnest prayers from day to day is
God be with you till we meet again.

William Murdoch Le Brun ©

I do not have a photograph of Will in his uniform but this is my favourite. His poem speaks volumes of a beautiful young man. He will never be forgotten.

LEST WE FORGET

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