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William Banks was said to have been buried in a trench at Pozieres by shellfire according to statements in his Red Cross file. Nothing could be done about getting him out, although his mates tried, they were under extremely heavy bombardment at the time.

His remains were found and identified due to the presence of his identity disc during 1936 by the Commonwealth War Graves, and reburied in a military cemetery.

From Francois Somme 

Pte 3084 William Henry Banks,
16th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company,
4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division, AIF
 
More than a hundred years ago, the sun of a world at peace was shattered in 1914 by the mournful symphony of artillery and, in the howls, in the chaos, the darkness of an insane war was extended to the fields of the Somme whose golden wheat, seasonal poppies, green plains between which flowed tranquil rivers disappeared in the turmoil of battles and became, under the shelling, into killing fields which, for miles were bruised, scarified by barbed wire, which day and night caught men then in the prime of their lives and who, unable to move, unable to escape these steel teeth, were riddled with bullets and hung with bowed heads from which, under their slouch hats and their steel helmets flowed streams of blood.Coming from the other side of the world, coming from Australia, New Zealand, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland, Wellington, Diggers and Kiwis, united by an unwavering friendship, united in the brotherhood of the ANZAC spirit fought together bravely on the sacred fields of the Somme alongside their French brothers in arms who admired these young men so much, both for their courage, their loyalty but also for their sense of humor which always prevailed above the horrors they endured but here, in Pozieres, Longueval, Amiens, Flers and Villers-Bretonneux, they endured a hell on earth and thousands of these heroes never had the chance to return home and found only the serenity, silence and eternity of a solemn grave bearing in stone and marble the memory of a generation of men to whom we owe so much and over whom I will always watch with care and respect so that their stories, their faces and their names, beyond the red fields of poppies, may live forever.

On this day, it is with the utmost respect and with the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who, with loyalty and courage, for Australia and France, gave his life.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 3084 William Henry Banks who fought bravely in the 16th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who was killed in action 108 years ago, on 12th August 1916 at the age of 19 during the Battle of the Somme.

William Henry Banks was born on 26 June 1897 in Footscray, Victoria, Australia, and was the son of William Henry Banks (1868-1908) and Alice Banks (née Harvey, 1869-1958), of 57 Mabel Street, North Perth, Western Australia. He had three sisters, Rose Olive Banks (1903-1993), Myrtle Hazel Banks (1905-1973) and Mavis Edith Banks (1907-1910). William was educated at North Perth State School, Western Australia and after graduation had his first taste of military life serving for just over four years in the 88th Battalion of the Senior Cadets and then worked as a printer until the outbreak of war.

With the outbreak of war in August 1914,the new Commonwealth of Australia found itself willingly at war for the empire. Australian leaders were not consulted, but demonstrated their unqualified loyalty. Andrew Fisher, Labour prime minister from 1914 to 1916, declared that Australia would support Britain to '"the last man and the last shilling".

Australia's dual loyalty was evident in the name of the volunteer force formed in September 1914, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Its first members sailed for the war in November 1914. They had enlisted with mixed motives: to serve King and Empire, to have a great adventure, to see the world, to do the right thing. One man in five had been born in Britain; many enlisted in the hope of a trip home before seeing active service.

William, at this time, driven forward by a deep desire to serve his country and fight alongside his friends, enlisted on July 9, 1915 in Perth, Western Australia, as a Private in the 16th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company, 10th Reinforcement. The 16th Battalion was raised in Melbourne on 16 September 1914, six weeks after the outbreak of the war and comprised 75% Western Australians and the balance of South Australians posted to it on formation. Soldiers from both States were subsequently assigned as reinforcements in similar proportions. The 16th Battalion was to become the fourth Battalion of the 4th Brigade in the 1st Division. With the 13th, 14th and 15th Battalions it formed the 4th Brigade under the command of Colonel John Monash. The 4th Brigade comprised Battalions drawn from all States of Australia.

Following extraction from Gallipoli to Egypt, it was split along with all of the Battalions in the 1st-4th Brigades to create the new Battalions of the 4th and 5th Divisions.The 16th Battalion's "pup" Battalion became the 48th Battalion in the 12th Brigade, also in the 4th Division, but with the proportion of South Australians raised to 50%.After a period of training of just over three months during which he learned the rudiments of modern warfare, how to use a rifle, William embarked with his unit from Fremantle, Western Australia, on board HMAT A32 Themistocles on 13th October 1915, too late however to take part in the Gallipoli campaign, and sailed for Egypt, arriving at Ismailia on 8th January 1916. Here the 16th Battalion, after a period of further training, was mainly employed in the defence of the Suez Canal under the shadow of the pyramids and in stifling heat which was particularly trying, made more so by the slow supply of water to the troops,then, on 1st June, embarked from Alexandria, on board HMT Canada and proceeded to France.

A little over a week after leaving Egypt, William and the 16th Australian Infantry Battalion finally arrived in France and were disembarked at Marseilles on 9th June 1916. From there they were sent by train into billets at "Canteen Farm", Bois-Grenier where they remained until 10th July then the next day marched to Hallobeau, near Steenwerck and moved to Bailleul railway station from where they proceeded on 13th July at 4:30am for the Somme and reached the town of Doullens at 12:00am. Shortly afterwards the battalion was ordered to move and marched through Candas, Montrelet, Canaples, Halloy-lès-Pernois, Berteaucourt and arrived at St Ouen the following day. On 16th July they continued their route through Wargnies, Havernas and reached the village of Naours on 22 July and underwent a brief period of training there. On 26 July they marched to Toutencourt and then to Warloy-Baillon on 29 July where they were ordered to be ready as soon as possible to join the front line.

On 4th August 1916, William and the 16th Battalion left Warloy-Baillon and marched to "Brickfields", outside the town of Albert, then the next day, moving closer to the front line under artillery fire, moved to "Tara Hill" and bivouacked at "Tara Gully" and on 8th August, took up position in the front line, in "Wire Trench", and were drawn into the darkness of a particularly deadly battle which remained forever etched in the memory of Australian soldiers as "the hell on earth of Pozieres".

The fighting at Pozieres, as part of the broader Battle of the Somme (which began on July 1st,1916), involved the Australians infantry battalions from 1, 2 and 4 Division. It covered a period of more than forty days, from 23 July to 5 September 1916, with the 3 divisions being rotated through the front line to mount an extended series of attacks on the German positions: the village of Pozieres itself, the so-called Old German Lines (OG1 and OG2), north of the village, including the Windmill,and finally Mouquet Farm.

There was tension between the British Army HQ and officers in the AIF. Pozieres was when Haig mocked Birdwood about the Western Front being the place where the AIF was up against a real enemy in a real war.

The losses for the 3 Australian divisions came to 23,000, with 5,500 killed and nearly 17,000 wounded. A distinctive feature of the fighting was the ferocious artillery bombardment, with a corresponding incidence of "shell shock" experienced by the soldiers. In only 7 weeks over July and August 1916, the AIF suffered roughly the same number of casualties as it had in 8 months on Gallipoli. The Western Front was different, principally in terms of how little the life of the individual soldier counted. Entire battalions could be sacrificed for no military gain. From Verdun to the Somme and Pozieres it was a war of attrition. The AIF’s shocking casualty figures were set to play out in Australia’s conscription referendum.

On 10th August 1916, at Pozieres, under heavy machine gun and shell fire, William and the men of the 16th Battalion launched a successful attack on a German position known as "Circular Trench" which resulted in the capture of 50 German prisoners as well as three machine guns. Driven forward by this success, the battalion continued to advance despite heavy losses and took a second enemy trench called "Ration Trench" near Mouquet Farm. The battalion immediately set about consolidating these new positions but were heavily shelled. The following day, small groups of Germans, emerging from their deep dugouts under the farm, attempted to attack the Australians but were mowed down by the 16th's machine gunners as well as artillery support but unfortunately on 12th August, William met his fate and whilst helping to digging a trench, a German shell fell and he was buried. Immediately, several of his comrades tried to save him but nothing could be done due to the ferocity of the shelling that took place that day and his body was lost.

However, in 1936, while a farmer was working his fields near Mouquet Farm, he discovered William's remains along with his identity disc. Shortly afterwards he was formally identified by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as William whose name had been engraved on the walls of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux but was, in February 1936, buried with full military honours at the London Cemetery And Extension, Longueval, Somme, where he now rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms.

The circumstances leading to William's death were recorded in the Australian Red Cross Society Wounded And Missing Bureau Enquiry Files as follows:
"I saw Private Banks,a Signaller,buried by a shell about August 12th near Mouquet Farm. We were in our front line and were being heavily shelled at the time about 2pm.There was no attack.We tried to get him out,but did not succeed,and he was left there." (1653 Private Arthur Sage,16th Australian Infantry Battalion).

"Banks was a Signaller. In the first stunt at Pozieres he was killed by a shell in the front line close to Mouquet Farm.I was about 40 yards away and went to the spot.He was nearly buried by earth,an arm and leg projecting.We pulled him out,he was dead.Being a Runner I had to go on with my job.Banks and I had been tent mates together in Egypt and in the same Signalling Corps.He joined up at Tel-El-Kebir and had been a printer in Perth.Age 18 or 19." (2797 Private Harold Alfred Gottlieb,16th Autralian Infantry Battalion).

William Henry Banks had a relative who, like him, served his country but this time during the Second World War. He was Leading Aircraftman number 405803 Ivan William Banks who served courageously in No. 1 Squadron of the Royal Air Force but unfortunately, his plane was shot down during a mission over the Netherlands on June 26, 1943 and was killed in action. He was 20 years old. Today he rests in peace alongside his brothers in arms at the Amsterdam New Eastern Cemetery and his grave bears the following inscription: "Not just today but every day in silence we remember."

William, on this day of remembrance, our thoughts and hearts turn with you with respect and reverence to honor your memory, to bring back to life your face and your story but also the story of a whole generation of young men like you who, with you, in the prime of their lives, had to give up the promises and hopes of a future with their loved ones to fight far from home in the name of peace and freedom in the darkness of the trenches of northern France to give future generations the hope of a better tomorrow.

So young and guided by a desire to do what was right and to live a great adventure, they had to say goodbye to the country they loved so much then after a last embrace filled with love and apprehension in the arms of their mothers, their wives, after last trembling and hesitant words, they joined their comrades with in their hearts a feeling of pride, of courage mixed with anguish and fear of uncertain tomorrows on the battlefields of the Great War without knowing that in their battalions, half of them would never return from a hell of which they ignored the brutality and cruelty but, after days under the sun reflecting in the peaceful waters of the ocean waves crashing in foam against the steel hull of liners carrying on them sons and fathers from the other side of the world, they finally arrived in France, a country they knew so little and whose charm, generosity and beauty they discovered during their march forward through flowery fields, orchards filled with apple trees, valleys bathed in light, smiling young girls then, little by little, in the dust that they raised under their boots, the sun disappeared and the sky so welcoming, so warming, gave way to a horizon line mixed with gray clouds formed by tons of shells and threatening lightning similar to hell and in the Somme, entered another world made of endless trenches from which they raised battalions of exhausted men who no longer had anything human under their torn uniforms and walked silently, haggard, like ghosts who lived an unimaginable nightmare, staggering heads down under faces stained with blood that only bandages hid the wounds hiding many others even deeper and invisible caused by the madness of a conflict of which they lived the full horror. At that moment, despite his young age, the innocence of the young William disappeared and alongside his comrades, entered the front line, under incessant and murderous rains of shells whose ferocity continued to break more and more of souls, to bury alive so many young men who could not even be rescued and who, in the mud, were swallowed, some never to be found again. They were young but already so brave under fire and held the line with determination, with the courage, the conviction and the strength which characterizes the entire Australian nation and whose sons and daughters served with so much bravery, perseverance and endurance united in brotherhood and camaraderie, gathered in the ANZAC spirit whose history they wrote by their acts, their devotion and their sacrifices which were paid through the poppies of Pozieres, Flers, Gueudecourt, Villers-Bretonneux, Le Hamel and Amiens where today we still remember the courage and the sacrifices of the Australians over whom I am proud to watch in the peaceful cemeteries of the Somme, in our villages today beautiful and silent which were for the Diggers, between 1916 and 1918, a hell on earth.

Today, if we live, if we have peaceful days it is thanks to their sacrifices that they paid with their blood, their youth, their lives through courageous attacks led with bayonets forward and in our villages, in my city of Amiens, we are deeply honored to keep their history alive, to keep alive the friendship that unites our two nations and to welcome the families, our Australian friends to express our eternal gratitude. I am French but I feel above all, in my heart, Australian, a country that did so much for us and which I fell in admiration and love through the values ​​that the Diggers carried until their last breath and who here, in the sacred fields, will always be like sons to me, my boys of the Somme.

Thank you so much William, coming from the heart of a young adopted Aussie whose respect, love and gratitude will be yours forever.At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember him,we will remember them.