Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lewis Edward Willis
Enlisted 13 January 1915 – 20th Infantry Battalion – No 706

Lewis Willis was the first of our family ANZACS to enlist in the First World War. He was 28 when he enlisted and was assigned to the 20th Battalion of the 2nd Division at Liverpool in January 1915. He had been married to his wife Marion for seven years and had at least three children. The family home was at Randwick in Sydney.
Having regard to later family history, he had a history of alcoholism and had frequently deserted his wife. Joining the army was probably a means to escape criminal proceedings for the latest desertion.
Lewis was 5 foot 7 inches tall with a fair complexion, grey eyes and fair hair (although another Army form describes him as having a fresh complexion with blue eyes and light brown hair.
Lewis and George Gerathy were both in the 20th Battalion but having regard to their movements according to their Army files, it is doubtful they ever met.
While in the Egyptian town of Heliopolis in January 1915, he was charged with being drunk and absent without leave for 28 hours. He was fined 5 shillings and forfeited one day’s pay. Later in August 1915 he was charged with being drunk, using insulting language at an Officer and resisting the guard. He was given 28 days detention at Cairo with a recommendation that he be discharged but that was not acted on.
He arrived at Gallipoli on 16 October 1915 in time for the last dramatic phases of the campaign. Lewis would have been in the thick of the fighting. By 23 December 1915 all troops had been pulled out of Gallipoli. Lewis had already been evacuated to the Greek island of Lemnos.
On 20 December 1915 he was charged with disobeying with willful defiance a lawful command given to him personally by his superior Officer (a Corporal). He had refused to go on duty to draw water, saying he had just gone to bed and was not feeling well and “would not get out of bed for Jesus Christ.” He was also charged that on 24 December he attempted to destroy clothing issued to him.
On the first charge his sergeant told the court martial that Lewis is of good character “and one of the best men in the platoon.” He had not seen Lewis under the influence of liquor since the Battalion left for Gallipoli. On the second charge a Captain of the Battalion said that he saw Lewis throw clothing (a shirt and a jacket) into an incinerator heap. A general order had previously been given to stop the wastage of clothing. Lewis claimed he simply took the clothes to the incinerator for others to deal with as they sought fit.
Lewis was found guilty of the first charge and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labour. He was found not guilty of the second charge.
He was returned to Australia to complete his sentence arriving on 1 July 1916. After completion of the sentence (which was reduced by three months so he could go back to the war) he was placed in the 24th Reinforcements of the 4th Battalion and sent to England on 24 April 1917. While at sea in Australian waters he was charged with refusing medical treatment and was given detention. When his ship was docked in Fremantle he was brought into Perth Public Hospital late on 15 May 1917 in an ambulance escorted by military police. He was drunk. He then urinated in his bed causing the hospital to file a complaint.
He broke out of the hospital the following morning and was off drunk until apprehended by military police. He finally left Fremantle arriving at Plymouth on 17 August 1917. In November 1917 he was assigned to the 21st Machine Gun Company of the 1st Machine Gun Battalion attached to the 1st Division stationed at Grantham in England.
Before arriving at the front to join the 1st Division, Lewis was promoted to acting Corporal but, after arriving in France in April 1918, he was charged with drunkenness and being absent from parade without permission, for which he was demoted back to Private.
Between June and August 1918 in the lead up to the Battle of Amiens he was again charged with being absent without permission on four further occasions and was fined a total of 44 day’s pay. However, his next absence on 21 August lasted until 2 October and he was charged with desertion. This occurred during a period of particularly heavy fighting and desertion in the face of the enemy would be the most serious offence.
In luck, the charge was reduced and he was only found guilty of being absent without permission and was sentenced to another 12 months imprisonment with hard labour (which included the three months previously remitted).
Lewis was certainly persistent. Well into his sentence in June 1919 (eight months after the war ended) he escaped from a work party of prisoners at Audruicq in northern France. After he was returned, no charges were prosecuted as by now everyone was keen to get home.
He left England for Australia on board the Euripides on 3 September 1919. Just before he left he was charged one last time, with altering his pay book to claim for some of his many absences. He was given 14 day’s detention and fined a further14 day’s pay.
He was finally discharged on 23 November 1919 after returning to Australia.
In the Children’s Court at Randwick in 1926, two warrants were issued for the arrest of Lewis Willis for disobeying a magisterial order to support his wife and children, with imprisonment until the orders were complied with. He must have gotten taller over the years because in the warrants he is now described as being 5 foot 11 inches high. The warrants also mentioned that he was a foreman on road works and was addicted to drink.
Improbably, Lewis served his country again during the Second World War, but his army file has yet to be made public so we are unable to read about his later exploits.

Glendon O'Connor 2015