Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From François Berthout

Pte 5762 William Henry Sidney Templeman
15th Australian Infantry Battalion,
4th Brigade, 4th Australian Division
 
Here we are on Christmas Eve and a new cold winter day dawns in the silence of the fields of the Somme which more than a hundred years ago were used to violence and on which fought a whole generation of men who carried the weight of war on their shoulders and who among the poppies and in the barbed wire, the mud of the trenches, gave their youth and their lives for what we have most precious today, the peace and freedom for which so many men fell and sacrificed their future so that we can have a tomorrow.Gone but not and never forgotten, they always stand side by side, young and proud under the rays of the sun which puts in its light the names and the lives of these young boys over whom I would always watch with love and respect so that who they were and what they did for us will never be forgotten.

Today, it is with the deepest respect, with benevolence and infinite gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who, for our tomorrow, paid the supreme sacrifice.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Private number 5762 William Henry Sidney Templeman who fought in the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade, which was first assimilated to the 1st Australian Division then to the 4th Australian Division, and who died of illness 105 years ago, on Sunday December 24, 1916, on Christmas Eve on the Somme front at the age of 20.

William Henry Sidney Templeman was born in 1896 in Sydney, New South Wales, and was the son of William and Harriet Templeman, of Caboolture, Moreton Bay, Queensland. William Henry was educated at State School, Caboolture, and after graduation worked as a groom.Before the outbreak of the war, lived in Brisbane, Queensland.

William enlisted on January 20, 1916 in Brisbane in the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion, 18th Reinforcement, and after a period of three months of training in Victoria, he embarked with his unit from Brisbane, on board HMAT A49 Seang Choon on May 4, 1916 and sailed for Egypt and arrived in Suez on June 25.Two months later, on August 6, 1916, he embarked with his battalion from Alexandria on board Megantic and was sent to England where he was Disembarked at Rollestone on October 14 but his rest was very short and embarked again the same day and proceeded overseas for France.

On October 15, 1916, William arrived in France and was disembarked at Etaples, he proceeded to join the 15th Australian Infantry Battalion on October 24 and was taken on strength on October 31 in the Somme, at Pont-Remy then on November 1 marched through the l'Etoile, near Amiens, Picquigny, Querrieu, Pont-Noyelles, La Houssoye, Ribemont, Buire-Sur-l'Ancre and arrived at the "Huts", on the Albert Road on November 6 and stayed in this area until December 23 alternating period of training, construction work and rest but unfortunately, six days earlier, on December 17, 1916, William fell seriously ill and was evacuated to the 1st ANZAC Medical Dressing Station then was transferred and admitted to the 39th Casualty Clearing Station located in Allonville suffering from pneumonia but his state of health worsened dramatically and he died a week later, he was 20 years old.

Today, William Henry Sidney Templeman rests in peace alongside his friends, comrades and brothers in arms at Allonville Communal Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "His country called he answered."

William had a cousin who fought in the great war, Private number 2405 William Joseph Jones who served in the 4th Australian Pioneer Battalion and who was unfortunately killed in action on June 22, 1917 in Belgium at the age of 20.His body was never found and his name is remembered and honored today at the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium.

William also had an uncle who fought in the first world war, Private number 7326 Walter Templeman who courageously served in the 9th Australian Infantry Battalion and who was unfortunately killed in action on October 10, 1917 in Passchendaele, Belgium at the age of 42 but his body was never found and his name is also remembered and honored at the Menin Gate Memorial.

William, on this Christmas Eve, at the time when the candles are lit, my thoughts are addressed to you and your brothers in arms, to a whole generation of men who, young and proud, served and fought with courage on the battlefields of the Somme, northern France and Belgium against bullets and shells, against diseases and cold that gnawed the hearts and souls of men who responded with courage and conviction to the call of duty and who for Australia and for France, in the trenches and the shell holes sacrificed their youth, the best years of their lives, a perspective of the future to do their bit, their duty alongside their friends, their brothers who together carried the weight of the war on their shoulders and shared together the fears, the hopes, the tears and the joys and found in the camaraderie, the comfort, the solidarity which united them far from home and who gave them the strength to fight and hold out in this endless nightmare that was their war and that was the great war which condemned thousands of young men in the barbed wire in which they were caught under the fire of artillery and machine guns which endlessly, without mercy, poured out death and despair and mowed down in waves the combined and courageous assaults of thousands of men who charged fearlessly into the enemy trenches to liberate France, to save humanity, to make triumph peace and freedom.Through clouds of poisoned gas, under storms of steel, and through hurricanes of fire, they faced the cruelty and violence that swept through the battlefields through which nothing could survive. Not a tree, not a meter of French soil was spared, no men, no families were spared by the madness and the sadness of the war that a few soulless lines described in dismal telegrams "your son was killed in action" "your husband, your children will not come back."The bodies of these young boys were buried, sometimes unfortunately without known graves but their souls, their memory, their stories have never ceased to live, they tell us their lives, their war, their destinies in eternal letters kept alive by their white graves. Death was only a step they took but death never had the last word on this generation of heroes on whom I would always be honored and proud to watch to keep them alive, to protect and perpetuate their memory.For me it is more than a duty, these young men came from very far to fight in France and left everything behind them, the love and the warmth of their homes, their families, their loved ones and gave their today, their lives for us so I want to give them my life so that theirs are never forgotten and so that their families know that there will always be someone, a guardian to watch over their sons, their men who are, through my eyes, each of them, heroes, my boys of the Somme and their names, their faces will live in the Somme, in our hearts and in our thoughts forever.Thank you so much William, for everything you and Australia did for us who will be forever grateful to you.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them with love and gratitude.