DARBY, William Pigott
| Service Number: | 6 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 25 September 1914 |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 15th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Monasterevin, Co Kildare, Ireland, 25 April 1872 |
| Home Town: | Sydney, City of Sydney, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Traveller |
| Died: | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 15 November 1935, aged 63 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Toowong (Brisbane General) Cemetery, Queensland Toowong Cemetery, QLD PLOT: No.23, Section 70, Portion 10 (Currently unmarked) |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 25 Sep 1914: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 6, 15th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Dec 1914: | Embarked Private, 6, 17th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Melbourne | |
| 22 Dec 1914: | Involvement Private, 6, 17th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 14 Mar 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 15th Infantry Battalion | |
| 13 Aug 1916: | Wounded AIF WW1, Corporal, 6, 4th Field Ambulance, Battle for Pozières , Shell shock | |
| 1 Jun 1917: | Transferred AIF WW1, Corporal, 4th Field Ambulance | |
| 2 Jul 1918: | Discharged AIF WW1, Corporal, 6, 15th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour William Pigott Darby's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From Chris Pigott, courtesy of Find A Grave
Cpl William Pigott Darby.
Eldest child of Dr. Martin P. Darby [1834-1901] and Anne Mary Pigott Darby [1841-1902] of Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, Ireland.
A former medical student, at The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin.
Married Elizabeth Josephine Conroy, at Fairview, Dublin, Ireland, in 1903.
They went to London, where their two children were born. They migrated to New Zealand in 1909, and appear to have separated in 1912-13.
William went to Australia, and after a period in Sydney, he went to Brisbane. In September 1914, he enlisted in the army at Toowoomba, Queensland. He served in WW1 as an Australian, in the Ambulance unit of the 15th Battalion of A.I.F, and was present at Gallipoli in April 1915 and at The Somme in August 1916, where he was blown up in a shell explosion.
Rescued, he was profoundly deaf afterwards, and suffered from "shellshock" and what is now termed "post traumatic stress disorder".
He was the model for the figure of the soldier which stands guard at one end of The Cenotaph, Martin Place, Sydney.
In 2006, a grandniece of William commissioned the Irish sculptor John Coll to create a replica statue of the one in Sydney. The statue was unveiled in the garden of a private house in Ireland, in April 2007, in the presence of very many of his grand-nieces and grand-nephews, and their children. The Australian Government was represented by a Lieut-Colonel at the ceremony.
In 2006, a grandniece of William commissioned the Irish sculptor John Coll to create a replica statue of the one in Sydney. The statue was unveiled in the garden of a private house in Ireland, in April 2007, in the presence of very many of his grand-nieces and grand-nephews, and their children. The Australian Government was represented by a Lieut-Colonel at the ceremony.
William was a granduncle of the creator of the memorial. His sister Lia Darby O'Grady being one of my grandmothers
Click images to start slideshow.