POOLE, William Robert
| Service Number: | 10656 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 11 January 1916, Wagga Wagga, NSW |
| Last Rank: | Driver |
| Last Unit: | 3rd Divisional Signal Company |
| Born: | Berwick, Victoria, Australia, 4 May 1894 |
| Home Town: | Diamond Creek, Nillumbik, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Engineer |
| Memorials: | Dartmoor Boys of Greenwald & District WW1 Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Roll of Honor (2) |
World War 1 Service
| 11 Jan 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Driver, 10656, 3rd Divisional Signal Company, Wagga Wagga, NSW | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 May 1916: | Involvement Driver, 10656, 3rd Divisional Signal Company, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 25 May 1916: | Embarked Driver, 10656, 3rd Divisional Signal Company, HMAT Ascanius, Melbourne |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
10656 William Robert POOLE was born at Berwick, Victoria, on 4 May 1894 and was enrolled at Mount Gambier High School on 21 January 1907 by his father, Robert Murton Poole, storekeeper, of Railway Terrace, Mount Gambier. He left the school on 31 March 1910.
He enlisted in Melbourne on 11 January 1916 (21, engineer, single, Presbyterian) naming his father, Robert Poole of Mount Gambier, as his next of kin, having previously been rejected as a result of ‘teeth’. He embarked from Melbourne on the ‘Ascanius’ on 25 May 1916, disembarked 18 July 1916, was sent overseas to France on 23 November 1916 and joined the 3rd Division Signals Company. He was hospitalised from 28 November to 6 December 1916 with laryngitis and from 21 to 26 January 1917 with chilblains. On 3 February 1917 he was transferred to London Headquarters and discharged on 26 February to take up employment in the under the Explosives Department of Ministry of Munitions for War.
In 1919 he returned to Australia on the ‘Devanaha’ accompanied by a wife and returned to Mount Gambier by train on Monday 23 June but declined a public welcome. The following report from the Border Watch provides some insights into his transition to post-war civilian life:
Information has been received that the King has conferred upon Mr W.R. Poole, eldest son of Mr R.M. Poole, formerly of Mount Gambier, but now of Greenwald, Victoria, the Order of the British Empire, for services given in the Great War. Mr W.R. Poole first served in France with an engineering unit with the AIF as a sapper, but because of his knowledge of chemistry he was transferred by the Ministry of Munitions from the firing line to England, where he was engaged in the making of poison gas in one of the large manufactories there. It is understood it is for his services in this way that he has received the decoration. He is now manager of the Bryt-oh Polish Works at Greenwald, near Dartmoor.
Published in Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War by Graeme Roulstone
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