WILLIAMS, Llewellyn
| Service Number: | 2837 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 21 July 1915, Keswick, South Australia |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 10th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia, March 1895 |
| Home Town: | Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 8 November 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" |
| Memorials: | Adelaide National War Memorial, Adelaide Postmaster General's Department WWI Honour Board , Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier Knight & Cleve Pictorial Honour Rolls, Mount Gambier St Andrew's Presbyterian Church Roll of Honor, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2837, Keswick, South Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2837, 27th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '15' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: '' | |
| 27 Oct 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2837, 27th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Benalla, Adelaide | |
| 8 Nov 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2837, 10th Infantry Battalion, 'The Winter Offensive' - Flers/Gueudecourt winter of 1916/17, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2837 awm_unit: 10 Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-11-08 |
Help us honour Llewellyn Williams's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
2837 Llewellyn WILLIAMS (Killed in action 8 November 1916)
Llewellyn Williams was born at Warracknabeal, Victoria, on 20 March 1895, the son of the Thomas266 and Margaret Williams. He was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 9 October 1908 by his father, Thomas Williams, blacksmith, of Anthony Street, Mount Gambier. He left the school on 30 March 1909267 and worked at the post office in Mount Gambier before transferring to the Adelaide G.P.O.268 He had served 4 years in the senior cadets. He had previously been rejected from the Commonwealth Military Forces because his small chest measurement did not satisfy basic requirements but in August 1915 his application to enlist (20, post office clerk, single, Presbyterian) was accepted. He named his mother, Margaret Williams of Mount Gambier as his next of kin. His file in the National Archives contains an extremely moving letter from his mother dated 14 July 1915 replying to his request that she agree to his enlistment:
Dear Llew,
I received your letter card this morning & it really was not a surprise to me to learn that you wanted to go to the war as I have been frightened to open your letters although excepting [accepting] it I had a good howl about it but still I will not stand in your light go if you think it is right to do so but mind it is heart breaking for me to say yes … I will just have to leave you in (God’s hands) but if you go Llew I supose you will be able to come home for a few days do you get higher wages if not you are better to stay where you are & now write & give me all particulars Llew with love from all at
home from your ever loving mother
He embarked from Adelaide on the ‘Benalla’ on 27 October 1915 attached to the 6th Reinforcements to the 27th Battalion, disembarked in Egypt a month later and was transferred to the 10th Battalion in late February 1916. He embarked from Alexandria on 27 March 1916, disembarking at Marseilles, France, on 3 April, was appointed a Temporary Corporal on 1 August 1916, but reduced to the ranks in October 1916 for allowing prisoners in his charge to obtain liquor. He was killed in action on 8 November 1916 in the trench lines near Guedecourt Wood.
A statement by 925 Sergeant Sydney Frederick James Farrell says the battalion was subjected to heavy shellfire during the day and that a shell had exploded within a few yards of where Williams was standing, killing Williams and another soldier and wounding five others. Farrell could see no wounds, so believed that concussion was the cause of death. He made crosses with full inscriptions for both men the next day and buried them that night just behind the lines. 2804 Private Harold Tierney gave a similar version of events.269 Williams’s name is listed on Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers- Bretonneux, Picardie, France.
266 Llewellyn Williams’s father died in 1911. The Border Watch, 17 May 1911, p.2, records his obituary.
267 Mount Gambier High School Admissions Register, 86.
268 Border Watch, 13 December 1916, p.3.
269 6085 Private John Henry McDonald related what he recalled but his was a very different story. In fact, he
gave two versions, each of which appear to be significantly different from the other.
Published in 'Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War' by Graeme Roulstone
Biography
"THE LATE PRIVATE L. WILLIAMS.
Private L. Williams, second son of Mrs. M. Williams, of Mount Gambier, was killed in action in France on November 8. He was born in Mount Gambier, and resided there until he was a young man. He joined the staff of the Mount Gambier Post-office, and later was transferred to the Adelaide office. He enlisted for active service, leaving for the front on October 27, 1915. He celebrated his 21st birthday in camp. He was a capable and conscientious official, and news of his death came as a great shock to his widowed mother and many friends." - from the Adelaide Chronicle 23 Dec 1916 (nla.gov.au)
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