Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Charles Dunderdale Gill was a soldier in the Australian Imperial Force in WWI. He was born to parents George Dunderdale Gill and Hannah Annie (Levy) Gill on the 6th of April 1895 in Port Pirie, South Australia, Australia. Mr Gill worked as a Telegraph Engineer before the war.

On the 19th of August 1914, Charles Dunderdale Gill enlisted to serve as a soldier in the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) in WWI. On the 20th of October 1914, he embarked at Adelaide as part of the 10th Battalion. A total of 1004 people embarked that day. 31 of them were officers, 969 men, 2 sister nurses, 1 YMCA representative, and one man in excess of the establishment. After a 5-day voyage the ship arrived at Fremantle. They spent a week in Fremantle and then spent another 2 months on the ship. They arrived at Alexandria, Egypt on the 6th of December 1914.

The 10th Battalion participated in the Gallipoli campaign. On the 1st of March 1915, the 10th battalion boarded “IONIAN” with the 9th battalion, left Alexandria the next day and reached Lemnos on the 4th. On the 25th of April 1915, the 10th Battalion arrived at the beach of Anzac Cove. Private Gill took part in the campaign and survived it.

Private Gill became a Sapper in the First Division Signal Company from the 10th battalion on the 2nd of March in 1916. The role of a sapper was to dig trenches to get closer to enemy trenches and place barbed wire in the ‘no man’s land’ as a defence against the opposing side.

In 1917 23rd of May, Gill embarked on an H.S. Londonderry for England at Le Havre due to a gunshot wound to the face and his arm which happened on the Western Front. He was then admitted to Graylingwell War Hospital. Later that year on the 6th of June, Private Gill was transferred to the 3rd Auxiliary hospital. On the 25th of June 1917, Gill was discharged from the hospital. On 18 July 1917,  he was given the role of the first division supply column in the 6th division signal company. On 21/08/1917, he was transferred back to the 1st division signal company. On the 18th of September 1917, Gill travelled overseas back to France ex Shefford from Folkestone.

6th of November 1917, Private Gill was promoted to lance corporal.

He was then detached for duty at the 4th Assistant Signal School on the 10th of March 1918. On 26th April 1918, Mr Gill was promoted to 2nd Corporal.

On the 8th of October 1918, Second Corporal Gill embarked at Taranto to return to Australia. He rejoined the unit from his detachment on 28th March 1918. On the 31st of January 1919, Mr Gill was discharged from the AIF 4th Military District in Point Sydney. On the 13th of May later that year, he was rewarded a medal for his display of coolness and gallantry to maintain communications while under fire.

In 1921 the 10th of October, Mr Gill married Gladys Melaine De Laine. Mrs Gill gave birth to four children. Rhonda Gladys (Gill) Thiele, Delma Edith Goldsworthy and two other children. They later divorced. Mr Gill then married Catherine Helen Stewart Coleman. Mrs Coleman gave birth to Robert Charles Gill and Judith Helen Gill.

On the 2nd of May 1981, Mr Gill sadly died of natural causes. He was buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery in South Australia.

In 2015, Mr Gill’s daughter Delma Edith Goldsworthy was interviewed. She described her father as a wonderful man and a lovely, generous, Victorian-type father. She quoted “He never drank, never smoked and never swore – I think I heard him say ‘damn’ once.”