Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Major William Twynam Mundell (558) of Elwood and Hawthorn, Victoria had prior to his enlisting on the 17 of September 1914 had been self employed as a merchant.

He was the son of David and Fanny Alice Mundell and husband husband of Alice Maude Mundell of Elwood, Victoria.

William was allocated to the 15th Battalion 1st AIF as a Lance Sergeant, and was an original member of the unit, and was present at the landing on Gallipoli on the 25 of April 1915.

William came through these first weeks unscathed, and was promoted to Second Lieutenant in the field, and continued serving in the trenches until he was evacuated ill with debility during the first week of June.

He rejoined his unit on Gallipoli 9 July 1915. Following the August Offensive, and with further casualties amongst his Battalion’s officers, William was granted the temporary rank of Captain, until he was again evacuated due to sickness during November 1915.  

He served in France from June 1916, and he was again promoted in the field, being made a Major, during December 1916. For his earlier distinguished service, his gallantry in action and devotion to duty during the fighting to capture Pozieres, William was ‘Mentioned in Despatches’. The recommendation reads “Has served with this battalion since its inception; he enlisted as a Private. Since the first operations of this Battalion in the vicinity of Pozieres, he has been in command of a Company and has handled it with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his Commanding Officer.”

William Mundell led a raid on 1 February 1917, near Gueudecourt, when the 15th Battalion attacked a section of the German front line known as Stormy Trench. The party consisted of 150 men and six officers, or one and half companies. The attack started at about 7.00 p.m. on a frontage of 500 metres. Although the enemy trenches were only 100 metres from the Australian lines, inadequate artillery support and poor overall planning caused the attack to fail. A German counter attack at 11 p.m. was beaten off. In the face of relentless German shelling of the captured trenches, and a stronger German counter attack at 4.30 a.m. the Battalion was forced to retire. Although 52 German soldiers were captured, the 15th Battalion’s casualties were 38 men killed, over 20 captured by the Germans and over 80 wounded.

During June 1917, the 15th Battalion was serving in Belgium, and Major Mundell was made Temporary Commanding Officer of his Unit during the fighting to capture Messines, and it was during these operations that William was wounded in action on the 19 August 1917, by machine-gun fire, whilst visiting the forward outposts of his Unit.

Shot through the shoulder, William was carried back to the rear, where after surgery at his Unit’s Regimental Aid Post, William succumbed to his wounds, and received a temporary field burial. Following the end of the War, Mundell’s remains were officially re-interred within Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Messines, Flanders, Belgium, where he rests to this day.

In extracts from his Red Cross Wounded and Missing file, Mundell was noted as “a very popular officer, and was always very considerate with the men. Even when being carried out he insisted on the stretcher bearers having rests frequently.” “He was a very popular officer and very much liked by all the men in the Battalion.” “He was rather a decent bloke.” “He was a very popular man and was greatly missed.”

His death was noted in the Brisbane Telegraph, “Major Mundell, who made a host of friends wherever he went, was originally a Melbourne boy, but had been in business in (Brisbane for a number of years, and was well known in commercial circles here and in North Queensland. He leaves a young widow in Melbourne.”

A brother, Sergeant James Middlecoat Mundell, enlisted in 1914 and served with the 13th Light Horse Regiment in Gallipoli and France, and was invalided to Australia in 1917.