Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Fox sustained a compound fracture and wound to his left this thigh on 22 July 1915 whilst fighting in the Dardanelles Campaign. He was triaged at the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station before being transferred to Floriana Hospital, Malta and from there to the NZ Military Hospital at Walton-on-Thames, England. He died of his wounds following the onset of gas gangrene.

# 6/1848 FOX William                                    Canterbury Regiment NZEF
 
William Fox was born to John and Nellie Fox at Toogoolawah on 17th June 1893. He probably attended school at Toogoolawah and may have secured work at the condensed milk factory. By the time of the outbreak of the First World War, William was living in Sydenham, a suburb of Christchurch NZ. William attended the recruiting depot in Christchurch on 13th January 1915. He advised the recruiter that he was a labourer employed by Shaw Saville and Co; a shipping company that provided regular shipping routes from England to New Zealand. William advised that he was 21 years old and he had served in the Christchurch Rifle Company Militia. He named his father of Toogoolawah, Brisbane Valley Line, as his next of kin.
 
William was accepted into the 4th reinforcements of the Canterbury Regiment, one of the four battalions that made up the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. His medical examination revealed that he had lost the forefinger on his left hand. William trained in a depot in Christchurch before embarking for overseas on 17th April 1915. While the reinforcements were at sea, the original NZEF attached to the 4th Brigade of the AIF, landed at Anzac Cove on the evening of 25th April 1915. The reinforcements landed in Egypt around the middle of May before William and the other reinforcements were landed on Gallipoli on 5th June 1915.
 
On 22nd July, William sustained a serious gunshot wound to his right thigh. He was carried down from the frontline to the beach at Anzac Cove where he was taken in by the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station. William’s wound was assessed as a severe compound fracture with the thigh bone splintered and protruding. The decision was made to place William on a hospital ship for a transfer to the Floriana Hospital on the island of Malta, being admitted on 28th July. The wound continued to cause the medical staff concern and on 13th September 1915, William was placed on the Hospital Ship “Panama” for transfer to the New Zealand Hospital at Walton on Thames in Surrey, England.
 
Regrettably, William’s wound did not respond to treatment and gangrene set in. He died on 26th October 1915 and was buried in the small cemetery nearby. There are no headstones in the cemetery, rather the names and details of 34 servicemen who are buried there are inscribed on two free standing wall panels. William’s father received his son’s medals; the 1914/15 Star, The Victory Medal and the Empire Medal. William Fox’s name is included in the list of those “Who Paid the Supreme Sacrifice” on the Esk War Memorial.