SPENCER, William Cornelius
| Service Number: | 6566 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 15 May 1916, Applied for enlistment at Victoria Barracks Sydney on 1st May 1916.Completed enlistment on 15th May at Sydney. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 1st Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 10 November 1882 |
| Home Town: | Alexandria, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Workshiop Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Belgium, 2 October 1917, aged 34 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 15 May 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 6566, 1st Infantry Battalion, Applied for enlistment at Victoria Barracks Sydney on 1st May 1916.Completed enlistment on 15th May at Sydney. | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 6566, 1st Infantry Battalion, Third Ypres, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '7' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 7 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 6566, 1st Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney | |
| 4 May 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 6566, 1st Infantry Battalion, Gunshot wound to left arm. Treated in hospital at Rouen. |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by John Oakes
William Cornelius SPENCER, (Service Number 6566) was born in Sydney on 10th November 1882. He applied to enlist in the AIF at Victoria Barracks on 1st May 1916. He passed a preliminary medical examination, then while waiting to complete his enlistment, joined the NSW Government Railways on 8th May 1916 as a temporary labourer at Eveleigh Workshops, where he had previously been employed casually. A week later, on 15th May, he completed his enlistment in the AIF at Sydney.
After training at the camps at Cootamundra and Liverpool, he was allotted to the 21st Reinforcements of the 1st Battalion. He embarked from Sydney in October 1916, and landed in England in November. After further training, he was sent to France in February 1917,. In March he joined the 1st Battalion ‘in the field’. He was wounded in action on 4th May (gunshot wound left arm) and treated in hospital in Rouen. He returned to his unit the same month. On 2nd October 1917 he was attached to the 1st Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery. On the same dayhe was reported as missing in action in Belgium.
A Court of Enquiry convened in March 1918 found that he must have been killed in action on 2nd October 1917. He has no known grave but is remembered with honour on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
A war pension was granted to his widowed mother.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board.