HINDMARSH, William Charles
| Service Number: | 213 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 July 1915, An original member of A Company |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 31st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Scone, New South Wales, Australia, 19 August 1882 |
| Home Town: | Lyra, Southern Downs, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Queensland, Australia, 15 May 1959, aged 76 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Blackall Cemetery, Qld |
| Memorials: | Ballandean Sons of the Empire, Toowoomba Queensland Railways Toowoomba Employees Roll of Honour, Warwick & District Railwaymen Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 213, 31st Infantry Battalion, An original member of A Company | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 213, 31st Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '16' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wandilla embarkation_ship_number: A62 public_note: '' | |
| 9 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 213, 31st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wandilla, Melbourne |
Help us honour William Charles Hindmarsh's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
William Charles Hindmarsh was the son of Peter and Mary Anne Hindmarsh of Lyra, Stanthorpe, Queensland. William’s two brothers also enlisted in the First World War. William was the only one of the three Hindmarsh soldiers to survive the fighting. Their father had passed away during 1914.
Williams’s older brother, 4806 Pte. Edwin Hindmarsh 15th Battalion AIF was killed in action at First Bullecourt on 11 April 1917, aged 32. His younger brother, 5829 Pte. Arthur Frederick Hindmarsh 42nd Battalion AIF, was killed in action at Messines two months later on 10 June 1917, aged 21.
William landed in Egypt with the newly formed 31st Battalion at about the time of the evacuation of Gallipoli. He was sent to France with the 5th Division in 1916 and took part in the Battle of Fromelles where he was badly wounded in the hand and forearm on 20 July 1916. He rejoined his unit in late 1916 and was treated in France for trench feet during February 1917.
Shortly after, his two brothers were killed during April and June of 1917. William’s mother Mary Anne, wrote to Senator Littleton Ernest Groom during April 1918. Littleton Ernest Groom had been elected to the first House of Representatives in March 1901 as Member for Darling Downs.
She wrote pleading for her son, William Charles Hindmarsh, to be allowed to return to Australia from active duty at the front, on the basis that two of her sons had been killed in action during 1917, and that her health was failing. She said the loss of her two boys had been too much for her, and was in doubt she would survive the loss of a third.
Mr. Groom took up her case and the Department of Defence eventually had William withdrawn from the Western Front and returned to Australia during October 1918, for ‘family reasons’.
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