Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Leslie Gilbert was born in January, 1894. He was son of William Taylor and Ann Elizabeth Gilbert. William was the oldest child in his family. William was a Methodist and lived in Norwood with his brother Walter Clarence Gilbert and his two parents. William was single and before signing up for the war he worked as a Hardware Assistant. On the 18th of June 1915, William Leslie Gilbert enlisted in the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) at the age of 21 and 5 months as an Acting Sargeant in the 79th Infantry Battalion. His registration number was 3024. Before embarking Australia, William was moved to the 10th Infantry Battalion and he was given the rank of Private. On the 21st of September, 1915, William embarked to Egypt on the HMAT Star of England A15 from Adelaide.

Once arriving to Egypt William began his training. The 10th Infantry battalion were training with rifles which then gave their battalion the nickname of the “Adelaide Rifles.” During 1916, the 3rd Brigade was split into the 13th Brigade which was part of a plan to make pup battalions. This split up the 10th Battalion. William was then transferred to the newly formed 50th Infantry Battalion, and he was part of the 4th Division where he was a Lance Corporal. This role gave him the responsibilities of watching over groups of men, making sure they did their duties and reporting if a man was sick. On the 19th of February, 1916, William was admitted to hospital due to sickness. He soon after was discharged from hospital and re-joined his division. After six months training in Egypt the 4th Division embarked to France via the Mediterranean port of Marseilles during early 1916.

After the 50th battalion had arrived in France on the 11th of June, 1916 they soon succeeded in the attacks outside the village of Pozieres against the German Empire. These attacks started because Pozieres was the highest point of the battlefield and this would have given the winning side a great advantage in the war. The British Empire accompanied the ANZAC’s in these attacks against the German Empire.

Soon after the attack of Pozieres, the 50th Battalion was assigned a role fight the German Empire in the Battle of Mouquet Farm. The battalion was not committed to fight in their first major battle. Until the 13th of August, 1916,  the battalion engaged in the fighting along with Canada and the United Kingdom. The battalion lost a heavy amount of casualties during these attacks. On the 16th of August, William was wounded in battle from an unknown cause. Because of his injuries he was pulled out of France and embarked to Birmingham, England. He left France on the 22nd of August and arrived in Birmingham on the 26th of August. William spent the rest of the year in Birmingham and on the 12th of May, 1917 he left England and was on his way back to Australia because he was medically unfit to continue in the war. It is unknown what the date of his arrival back to Australia was except he was discharged from the army on the 13th of June, 1917. William spent 1 year and 234 days abroad giving service to his country

William showed the true qualities of what it means to be an ANZAC. He displayed courage by joining the AIF, endurance for how he fought till the end and was wounded and friendship with his fellow soldiers and supporting them. He displayed the ANZAC spirit by being friendly with his fellow diggers, helping each other and looking out for one another in the battle field. He reflected the ANZAC spirit through his bravery to help his country and his loyalty to be able to stay in the war for nearly two years. This is enough to show that he had the true ANZAC spirit.

William was awarded the Victory medal for Britain’s succession in the war, the 1914-1915 star medal which was a medal handed out to people who enlisted between these years and the British War Medal which was a medal for people’s service in the war.

On the 13th of March, 1952, William Leslie Gilbert died at the age of 57.

RecordSearch 2017, Australian Goverment, accessed 28 February 2017, http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx

50th Battalion 2017, RSL Virtual War Memorial, accessed 28 February 2017, https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people/302126

William Leslie Gilbert 2017, UNSW Australia, accessed 2 March 2017, https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=110712

Search for a person 2017, Australian War Memorial, accessed 2 March 2017, https://www.awm.gov.au/people/roll search/nominal_rolls/first_world_war_embarkation/?preferred_name=William+Leslie+Gilbert&service_number=&unit=&conflict=0&op=Search

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps 2017, Wikipedia, accessed 6 March 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_and_New_Zealand_Army_Corps