William Francis LAVIS

LAVIS, William Francis

Service Number: 2170
Enlisted: 7 July 1915
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 18th Infantry Battalion
Born: Uralla, New South Wales, Australia, 20 July 1885
Home Town: Guyra, Guyra, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Motor driver
Died: Killed in Action, France, 2 August 1916, aged 31 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Guyra District Great War Honour Roll, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France)
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World War 1 Service

7 Jul 1915: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2170, 18th Infantry Battalion
30 Sep 1915: Involvement Private, 2170, 18th Infantry Battalion, Battle for Pozières , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Argyllshire embarkation_ship_number: A8 public_note: ''
30 Sep 1915: Embarked Private, 2170, 18th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Argyllshire, Sydney

Help us honour William Francis Lavis's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks

Bill Lavis was born and raised in Guyra, NSW and joined his brother Tom in the 18th Battalion during early 1916.

One of the last letters received from Bill was as he arrived in France, published in the Guyra Argus June 1916, “Things are beginning to look a bit more like war than they were in Egypt, for you can hear the big guns at the front from where we are billeted. They are going all day, and all night; of course, you can hear them a lot plainer at night. Some of the towns we passed through in the train would talk a lot of beating. 58½ hours is the longest trip I ever did in a train, and also the longest train I ever saw—every inch a quar-ter of a mile long. We got a good reception all the way along. All the country here is cultivated mountains and all. Some of the hills that are cultivated would be a good day's work to walk up and down again without doing anything else. There is plenty of beer and wine here— beer 1d a glass, and wine 2d. Nearly every house has a bar in it. We had a demonstration of a gas attack the other day. The smell of the chemicals in the helmet is enough to make you feel dizzy without the genuine article. The money over here is a bit on the queer side. You get a note for 50 centimes, which is about 5d in English money, and there is a small coin for the same amount. It is a great drawback not being able to speak the language, I can get enough out now to make myself understood. Love to all.”

Bill was present when his younger brother 1721A Pte. Thomas George Dawson Lavis, of the same battalion, was killed in action on 22 May 1916, aged 22.

Bill died only a few months later, during the heaviest of fighting at Pozieres. A mate stated in his Cross file, “There were two brothers Lavis in 18; one was killed at Bois Grenier in June; the other I saw after he had been buried by a shell at Pozieres in the first attack of the 2nd Division about the 1st August. He was dug out about 2 hours afterwards; it was unknown at the time that he been buried. The sap had been blown in and whilst digging it out we came across his body…There were only 2 Lavis in the Battalion. I also saw the other brother killed at Bois Grenier; they came from Guyra.”

Another brother, 110 Lce.Cpl. Edward Lavis served with the 1st Battalion AIF and was severely wounded on 24 August 1918. He was sent home a few months later, with a ‘gunshot wound to his left elbow, fractured humerus.’

Their parents were Dennis and Mary Jemima Lavis, of Guyra, NSW.

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