Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Manager and the Maybloom: The Fog of Lihons Wood

The fog on 9 August 1918 was thick enough to hide a battalion, but it could not muffle the sound of the German machine guns. Private William Minifie Field moved through the mist toward the high ground near Lihons, part of a line of Victorian infantrymen tasked with maintaining the momentum of the Great Allied Offensive. He was thirty-eight years old, a bank manager from the regional town of Sale who had left a wife and a two-year-old son to join the ranks as a reinforcement. By the time the sun began to burn through the haze over the Somme valley, Field was dead, struck in the head by a machine-gun burst early in the advance.

The ledger at the bank in Sale stayed open. William Minifie Field stepped into the street to join a war he was technically too old to fight. Born on 3 September 1879 in Fitzroy, Field was the son of William and Florence Kate Field. He was educated at Scotch College between 1893 and 1896, during a period when the school emphasized a combination of academic rigour and athletic participation.

After his schooling, Field entered the banking sector, eventually rising to become the manager of the Bank of Australasia in Sale. In a regional hub like Sale, a bank manager was a pillar of the community, responsible for the financial stability of local businesses and farmers. By 1917, he had established a life with his wife, Jessie Baker, and their infant son, William John. His decision to enlist at the age of thirty-seven reflected the social pressures of a nation grappling with a recruitment crisis.

Before the 7th Battalion, there was the Hawthorn mud. William Field played for the club when they were still the "Mayblooms" of the Metropolitan Junior Football Association (MJFA). At the turn of the century, Hawthorn was establishing the roots of what would later become a Victorian Football League powerhouse. While the MJFA records are incomplete, Field is explicitly commemorated on the Hawthorn Football Club Player War Service honour board. He was part of a cohort of athletes whose physical discipline and team-oriented mindset made them ideal candidates for the infantry. He played alongside men like Joseph Slater and Norman McLennan Forbes, who would also lose their lives on active service.

By early 1917, the volunteerism of the early war had waned following the 23,000 casualties suffered at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm. In response, the government launched "specialty" recruitment drives, including the "Sportsmen’s Thousand". This campaign used the imagery of famous athletes to suggest the battlefield was the ultimate arena for sporting prowess. Field enlisted on 15 May 1917, his papers specifically marked for this unit.

He embarked from Melbourne on 4 August 1917 aboard the HMAT Themistocles. During the voyage, he was hospitalised for five days with influenza. After training at Sutton Veny on the Salisbury Plain, his professional background led to his appointment as Acting Lance Corporal. He attended NCO and officer training schools, but the immediate need for manpower at the front took precedence over the administrative pipeline. When he received orders for France on 5 February 1918, Field reverted to the rank of Private. He entered the line not as a manager or an officer, but as a rifleman.

Field was taken on strength of the 7th Battalion on 10 February 1918. The unit was a hardened professional force, originally raised by Lieutenant Colonel Harold "Pompey" Elliott. On 9 August, the battalion was tasked with capturing the high ground near Lihons Wood, an area heavily fortified with German machine-gun nests.

Unlike the rapid breakthrough of the previous day, the fighting on 9 August was characterized by stubborn resistance. The 7th Battalion "hopped the top" in the early morning fog, which caused confusion in coordination. As the mist lifted, the infantry were exposed. Private Henry Reeves reported that Field was hit in the head by machine-gun fire near Rosieres early in the advance. The hit was direct and fatal; death was almost instantaneous.

William Field was 38 years old when he fell. He was initially buried in a communal grave alongside fifty-one of his mates before being reinterred at Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres. He lies in Plot II, Row I, Grave No. 16.

The loss reverberated through Victorian society. While legally married to Jessie, a death notice also appeared from a Ruth Rigby, described as his "sorrowing fiancee," suggesting the complexities of a life interrupted. His son, William John, grew up without a father and lived in Gippsland until 1999. For his headstone, Jessie chose a single word: "Remembrance". It remains a quiet acknowledgement of the bank manager who left his office for the fog of Lihons.

Lest we forget

Rod Hutchings

Director, Virtual War Memorial Australia

Source Crediting: National Archives of Australia (B2455), AWM Red Cross Wounded and Missing Files, Hawthorn Football Club History, Scotch College World War I Commemorative Website.