Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Ballarat & District in the Great War

Better to die a hero
Than be deaf to his country’s call.

Too dearly loved to ever be forgotten.

William Robert Hunter was born at Ballarat East on 15 February 1898. He was the eldest son of Scotsman, Robert Hunter, and his Australia-born wife, Mary Pratt. The family lived for many years at 147 Humffray Street south.

The Hunters were a particularly close family with the children having pet names: the youngest brother, Norman Tennyson, was known as Tenny, and the baby of the family, Mary Laura, was always known as Docy. William was often called Willie, but was usually answered to Billy.

As a boy, Billy attended the nearby Mount Pleasant State School and received his spiritual tuition at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church Sunday School. After finishing school, he went to work as an operator at the Sunnyside Woollen Mill in Hill Street, where his father was a manager. However, just prior to enlisting in the AIF, Billy was working at Payne’s the Jewellers in Sturt Street, Ballarat. In his spare time the young lad, who had risen through the compulsory school cadets scheme, served with Ballarat’s 70th AIR. He had already accrued three years of military training by the time he joined up.

Although there was no sign of consent from his parents, Billy would have undoubtedly had to supply the military authorities with written permission when he enlisted at Ballarat on 27 March 1916. At just 18-years and 1-month, questions would definitely been asked had he failed to do so…

Being such a young age, it was not surprising that his medical examination revealed quite a slight young man – he was only 5-foot 5¼-inches tall and weighed just 9-stone. It was his chest measurement of 35½-inches that proved he was at least hale and hearty – and his eyesight was normal. Of course, photographs being what they were in 1916, there is little to indicate his grey eyes and dark brown hair, but his portrait clearly shows his fair complexion.

Despite all of Billy’s paperwork being officially dated 27 March, the new recruit had entered camp nearly two weeks earlier. He joined Ballarat’s 14th Depot Battalion at the Showgrounds on 15 March and was in their ranks for just under three months. On 1 June, he was posted to the second allocation of reinforcements destined for Ballarat’s 39th Infantry Battalion.

After a trip that took just under seven weeks, Billy, and the other new members of the 39th Battalion onboard RMS Orontes, disembarked at the English port of Plymouth on 2 October. They immediately marched out to camp at Larkhill on the Salisbury Plain.

It seems that Billy chafed against the restraints of military life – or maybe he was discovering the joys of being a young man “on the tear”. His first collision with authority came on 2 November, whilst he was still in England, when he was marked absent from Tattoo Roll Call. He was put on defaulter’s parade for that little misdemeanour… Then, after arriving in France on 23 November, Billy racked up a further four charges. Although he was without blemish for over two months, he was then charged several times over a very short period. On 14 March he was absent without leave on – a three-and-a-half-hour indiscretion that resulted in seven-days Field Punishment No2. Then, on 5 April, he absented himself again and got drunk in St Omer. This time the punishment for the two charges was just two days FP No2. Finally, on 29 May, he was AWL again – once more it was a relatively short absence, but he was punished severely with seven-days FP No2 and the subsequent loss of pay. Given that the battalion was in the Catacombs at Hill 63 outside Ypres, he was very lucky to avoid a more severe award!

On 7 June the British Army detonated a series of mines along the Messines Ridge – immediately after, as the dust began to settle, the men of the 39th Battalion went over the top. During the course of that first day, Billy was wounded in the right arm. It was only a slight wound, but the medics at the Casualty Clearing Station were well aware of the overwhelming threat of tetanus. The heavily manured fields of Belgium and France and the deep flesh wounds that characterised trench warfare had seen a rapid rise in tetanus cases, so the injection was imperative. From there, Billy was transferred back to the St John’s Ambulance Hospital in Étaples, before being evacuated to England on 10 June.

The medical staff at the Fulham Military Hospital were unconcerned when Billy was admitted on 11 June. His general condition was good and apparently caused no anxiety. However, quite suddenly he became very ill. A further vaccination of anti-tetanus serum was given the next day, and a lumbar puncture was then performed on 21 June to check for meningitis. The test came back clear, showing no evidence of the dreaded “cerebro-spinal fever”.

Two days later, Billy began to suffer convulsions, and a second lumbar puncture was performed. By this time, the young soldier was dangerously ill. The antibiotics, required to treat the rampant infection destroying his internal organs, were years from development, and the nurses could do little other than make him comfortable. At 8:15pm on 25 June 1917, Billy lost his battle.

Despite the negative results of the lumbar punctures, the cause of death was given as septic meningitis. What they may not have considered was that the anti-tetanus vaccine, administered at a time when purification methods still needed improvement, may have actually caused the infection.

On 29 June, at 1:15pm, Chaplain V. R. Bradbury, performed a burial service for Billy Hunter in the Australian section of the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey. There were no family or friends to witness the flag-draped coffin being carried to the grave; and only strangers to hear the three volleys fired by the guard of honour and the plaintive notes of the Last Post. Billy had been afforded a full military funeral, but he was now buried in a strange land so very far from home.

Mary Hunter later planted tree number 1115 in the Ballarat Avenue of Honour in her son’s memory as a part of the Sunnyside Woollen Mill Employees tribute. Notices that were placed in the Ballarat Courier also showed the family’s heartbreak,

‘…Could we but see him once again: If he had only come home to die; To kiss the face we loved so well, And whisper, “Willie, good-bye”…’