WILLMAN, Thomas Leslie
| Service Number: | 12434 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 3 March 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Sergeant |
| Last Unit: | 10th Field Ambulance |
| Born: | Huntly, 1892 |
| Home Town: | White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Mounted Constable |
| Memorials: | Bagshot State School No 852 WWI Honour Roll, Bendigo Great War Roll of Honor |
World War 1 Service
| 3 Mar 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 12434, 10th Field Ambulance | |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Jun 1916: | Embarked Private, 12434, 10th Field Ambulance, HMAT Wandilla, Melbourne | |
| 6 Jun 1916: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 12434, 10th Field Ambulance, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wandilla embarkation_ship_number: A62 public_note: '' | |
| 14 Aug 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Corporal, 10th Field Ambulance | |
| 29 Dec 1916: | Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Sergeant, 10th Field Ambulance | |
| 31 Jul 1917: | Honoured Military Medal, Battle of Messines, Recomendation:- 'On the 31st July, 1917, near MESSINES, this N.C.O. was in charge of the bearers working between a Relay Post and a car loading point, a distance of about 4,000 yards. The area between was continually under hostile artillery fire and evacuation was partly by means of hand carriage and partly by trench trampoline. From before dawn until relieved at night, this N.C.O. was continually in the open, directing and encouraging the men under him. On three occasions he acted as a stretcher bearer, when men ran short and completed the whole journey. He showed throughout a total disregard for personal danger and a high devotion to duty. He showed all through a steady and invincible determination and displayed a capacity for leadership in extreme danger. His example was a splendid one for his men.' Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 24 January 1918 on page 84 at position 82 | |
| 30 Sep 1918: | Wounded AIF WW1, Lance Sergeant, 12434, 10th Field Ambulance, Breaching the Hindenburg Line - Cambrai / St Quentin Canal | |
| 14 Jun 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sergeant, 12434, 10th Field Ambulance |
Awarded the Military Medal SGT T.L. WILLMAN
Military Medal Recommendation:-
'On the 31st July, 1917, near MESSINES, this N.C.O. was in charge of the bearers working between a Relay Post and a car loading point, a distance of about 4,000 yards. The area between was continually under hostile artillery fire and evacuation was partly by means of hand carriage and partly by trench trampoline. From before dawn until relieved at night, this N.C.O. was continually in the open, directing and encouraging the men under him. On three occasions he acted as a stretcher bearer, when men ran short and completed the whole journey. He showed throughout a total disregard for personal danger and a high devotion to duty. He showed all through a steady and invincible determination and displayed a capacity for leadership in extreme danger. His example was a splendid one for his men.'
Submitted 6 October 2019 by Steve Larkins
Biography contributed by Jack Coyne
Thomas Leslie WILLMAN
In February 1918, The Bendigoian weekly supplement published the following: -
‘Mr. J. Willman, of White Hills, has been advised by the Defence department that his son, Corporal T. L. Willman, has been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous service in France. Cpl. Willman is attached to the 10th Field Ambulance, and has been two years at the front. Before enlisting Corporal Willman was a mounted constable of police, stationed at Yarram.[1]
Thomas Willman joined the Police force in service in May 1912. He was granted leave of absence to enlist March 1916. ‘Members of the Victorian Police force were some of the first to answer the call with twenty men joining the first convoy of soldiers who left Australian shores in October 1914. Over the course of four long years, one hundred and thirty-eight Victorian Police enlisted from stations across the state. Of these, twenty-seven lost their lives’. [2]
The Willman family had been miners in the Huntley area with Thomas’s father John being granted a gold mining licence at Reedy Creek, Huntley in 1877. On enlistment John would be assigned to the 10th Field Ambulance Brigade. It is not known whether this was Thomas’s wish being from a police background.
The 10th Field Ambulance was formed in March 1916 just as Thomas was enlisting. The unit embarked on HMAT Runic and arrived in England in August 1916. They settled down to serious military training on the Salisbury Plain and were ordered to France in November under Lieut, Colonel Purdy. They went almost immediately into action on the Western Front and remained there till the fighting concluded. They served under very difficult conditions throughout.
Their numbers earned a number of decorations including 35 Military medals. Their casualties were high with 22 killed in action, 14 died of wounds, and 4 others died, making a total 40 dead plus 76 wounded and 34 gassed. [3]
In August 1916 on arriving in England Thomas would be promoted to Corporal and by November he was Temporary Sergeant and month later Lance Sergeant. He would serve throughout 1918 and be wounded on September 30 as the Allied forces pushed the Germans back to the Hindenburg Line. On October 5th he would be invalided to the UK with a Gun Shot wound to the right thigh and spend the December 1918 in hospital. He would be discharged in early January and await repatriation to Australia. He would arrive home in March 1919. He would rejoin the Victorian Police in June 1919 however, his service was short lived and he resigned in January 1920.
SERVICE DETAILS:
Regimental No. 2434
Place of birth: Huntley Victoria
Religion: Methodist
Occupation: Mounted constable
Address: Napier Street, White Hills, Bendigo, Victoria
Marital status: Single
Age at enlistment: 24
Next of kin: Father, John Willman, Napier Street, White Hills,
Enlistment date: 3 March 1916
Unit name: Field Ambulance 10
Embarked: HMAT A54 Runic on 20 June 1916
Final Rank: Lance Sergaent
Fate: Returned to Australia March 5, 1919
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 24 January 1918 on page 84 at position 82
Police - Re-joined 24/06/1919; Resigned 15/01/1920
'On the 31st July, 1917, near MESSINES.
The Third Battle of Ypres was an Allied offensive mounted to the south and west of the Belgian medieval walled town of Ypres. Third Ypres took place from the end of July 1917 to mid November 1917. The city was destroyed in the process thanks to relentless German shelling. The major operations of the British ‘Flanders Offensive’ began on 31 July 1917 when British forces, with two French divisions, attacked the German defences along a 16-mile front east of Ypres. For fifteen days before that the British artillery, which included Australian batteries, fired more than four million shells from 3,000 guns.[4]
Historians Steel and Hart wrote:- “Rain they had suffered before ... This time not only did it pour down, it was also desperately, miserably cold. … As the British and Imperial troops slogged up the Passchendaele Ridge, the science of war had indeed been reduced to a contest of brute strength.”[5)
[1] Bendigoian, Febraury 21, 1918. MILITARY MEDAL AWARDED. CORPORAL T. L. WILLMAN.
[2] Victorian Collections. Museums Victoria web site. https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5a77a02c21ea690ef0ccf017
[3] Formation of the 10th Field Ambulance http://www.10thfieldambulance.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Chapter-1.pdf
[4] Virtual War Memorial Australia Website - Third Ypres - 30 Jul - 5 November 1917. https://vwma.org.au/explore/campaigns/8
[5] Passchendaele : the sacrificial ground / Nigel Steel and Peter Hart. London : Cassell, - Cassell military paperbacks.
Click images to start slideshow.