Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Wayland GRAINGER

Military Cross  

Recommendation: -

 ‘For devotion to duty during an enemy raid on our trenches near FAUQUISSART on the evening of the 28th October 1916. He repeatedly traversed the line during intense bombardment, which preceded the attack and had the entrance of certain mine shafts closed and disguised, thereby saving them from being bombed. Accompanied by a Sapper he proceeded underground collected the men at work and went part of the relief up one shaft and proceeded with remainder up another and posted them. While doing so he was bombed. He later went in search of a wounded man whom he took back. He then returned to the front line and remained there until relieved.’

The Bendigo Advertiser printed the following news of William Grainger on December 8, 1916: - LIEUT W. W. GRAINGER WINS MILITARY CROSS.

MR. H. T. Grainger, of Charlton, has received a cable message from his brother, Lieut W. W. Grainger, of the Australian Mining Corps, stating that he had been awarded the Military Cross. Mr. Grainger, who is the youngest son of the late Mr. H. Grainger, formerly mining- inspector in Bendigo, received his technical training at the Bendigo School of Mines. Bendigo, and sailed last March and went straight to France, and has been in the trenches since April. Another brother is in the same corps, and the cable states they are both well.[1]

 The Grainger family dug for gold in the 1850’s in Bendigo with W.H Grainger listed as an early miner on the fields.

William’s elder brother Richard had enlisted a month earlier in the Western Australian Mining town of Boulder. He was 41 years of age and William was 35. Both were much older than average AIF infantry recruit, however when the call came for men with experience in mining, both would answer the call.

Just a month earlier, the Bendigo Independent newspaper reported on October 21, 1915: –                                                                   ‘It has been decided to form a Mining Corp in Australia for active service abroad. The corps will consist of a headquarters and three companies. The conditions of enlistment and pay will be laid down for the A.I.F, excepting that the limits of age will be 18 to 50 years. Men experienced in underground work as foreman, shift bosses, facemen, tunnellers, tunneller’s mates and blacksmiths should apply.’ [2]  

William would enter the service as a Second Lieutenant, a commissioned officer. No doubt having a qualification and being a Mine Manager assisted in his elevation to a Commissioned Officer. By June 1916, he was promoted to full Lieutenant. His elder brother Richard would enter the service as ‘Sapper’ the equivalent rank in the Mining Corp to Private.

Both Grainger brothers would both join the 3rd Australian Tunneling Company, which was sent to the Fauquissart area and took over the chalk workings at Hill 70. These were the best tunneling conditions in the great chalk seams running across northern France. Excavation generally had to be conducted with great care to conceal the diggings to prevent detection by listening devices of the enemy. The chalk was dug out with miners' picks and filled into bags. These bags were trucked along the gallery to suitable positions, hauled to the surface and emptied at night. 

Underground, tunnellers faced many a threat: entombment, obliteration, health problems brought on by the workload, working environment and poor air quality; there was even the risk of drowning. But the biggest killer was actually gas poisoning; not the toxic vapour variety used in cloud and shell form by troops on the surface, but carbon monoxide (CO), an invisible, odourless and tasteless substance that was naturally produced by every explosive action – even the firing of a simple rifle bullet.[3] 

As the nature of the war changed from trench warfare in 1918, to a more open field fighting on the Somme, the tunnellers were needed less and William was detached to the Heavy Artillery of the 1st Australian Division and would serve with them until returning home.

William Grainger served nearly three and half years in the Tunneling Corp. He returned to Australia in May 1919.

His elder brother Richard returned to Australia in August 1917 suffering shell shock.

SERVICE DETAILS: 

Born: Bendigo
Occupation: Mine manager

School: School of Mines, Bendigo
Address: Bendigo, Victoria
Marital status: Single
Age at enlistment: 35
Next of kin: Brother, Henry Thomas Grainger, Bank of Victoria, Charlton.
Enlistment date: 8 December 1915
Unit name:  Mining Corps, Company 3
Embarked: HMAT A38 Ulysses on 20 February 1916
Final Rank: Lieutenant
Fate: Returned to Australia 11 May 1919                                     Died: June 4, 1935 Temora NSW [4]

Medal Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 103

Date: 29 June 1917

On October 28, 1916. 

‘For devotion to duty during an enemy raid on our trenches near FAUQUISSART on the evening of the 28th October 1916.

This battle most likely took place during the major battle for Flers / Guedecourt in Northern France which raged from October 18 – November 16, 1916. By this time the Somme battlefield had been deluged with rain and the attacks were made in atrocious conditions. The attacking waves of troops were sucked down by the cloying mud and thus, unable to keep up with their creeping artillery barrage, became easy  targets for German machine-gunners and riflemen. [5]

[1] Bendigo Advertiser, December 8, 1916, P. 29 
[2] Bendigo Independent Newspaper 21/10/1915, P. 3                     [3] Tunnellers Memorial website http://www.tunnellersmemorial.com/tunnelling-companies/

[4] The Argus, June 8, 1935. P.15
[5] Battle of Flers – AWM website https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E84320