Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Sloane was born in Monaghan, Ireland  in 1889. After living in Monaghan, he had moved to Australia. He lived on Carey Street Magill, South Australia. Before the war he was a 26-year-old tram conductor who at the time was not married and didn’t have any children. His mother Mary Ann Sloane was the next of kin, she would own all of his belongings once he had died. He was a part of the Church of England which which was religion.

On the 31st of December 1915, he had enlisted to fight for Australia in the war. Whether he had enlisted with any other family members is unknown. He was a private when he had first joined the army but later he was upgraded to a Lance Corporal. He was apart of the 11th Field Ambulance, this field consisted of four battalions the 41st, 42nd, 43rd and the 44th.

William Sloane had travelled on the HMAT Suevic A29. There were roughly 7,756 other people aboard the boat. The majority of them were going to first train and then fight in the war. Harland and Wolf built the boat in the Northern parts of Ireland. The boat had three “sisters” called Afric, Medic and the Persic. All of these boats were used to transport troops into war. On the 17/3/19, he had embarked to England.

He had trained properly before he went to war. William and the rest of the men had arrived at Plymouth on the 21/7/16. His training took place in Larkhill Camp on the Salisbury Plains. The Larkhill Camp originated on the August 12th 1914 and concluded in 1915. It was a school of Royal Horse and Field Artillery. This prepared the troops for when they had to fight.

William Sloane had fought in Southampton and then to France. He arrived in Le Havre and then had travelled to Bailleu. Australia were fighting in this battle to control the Divisional Rest Station. They were successful and had taken over it:  this was the first station that they administrated in France. After they had taken over the Divisional Rest Station, they had to assist the Third Division. The 11th field Ambulance group had helped them by running sector medical posts and stations. The enemy had bombed the Advanced Dressing Station and as a result two chefs had died. The Ambulance group had also helped in Ploegsteert. During his time at war, William Sloane had suffered his fair share of injuries. He was first wounded in action on the 5/6/1917 and admitted to hospital on the 7/6/1917 he had a gun shot wound in the right shin. He had transferred to a different hospital on the 7/6/1917 and then on the 16/6/1917. After he had healed, he had re-joined his unit on the 26/6/1917.

On the 9th of August 1918 at night in Ceristy, men in the neighbouring Artillery Units were struck. William Sloane had volunteered to help the men by getting them to safety. He had lead three other men to help him bring back the men. Heavy bombing and aerial machine gun fire was used to attack the neighbouring Artillery Units. William Sloane and the three men brought all of the wounded allies back to Ceristy where is was more safe area. On that night he had displayed immense bravery as he could have died attempting to save the men. Due to William Sloane’s actions on the battlefield, he was awarded the Military Medal. He had displayed courage and mateship by doing this. Those are two qualities that represent the ANZAC spirit. The definition of ANZAC spirit is the characteristics of Australian and New Zealand soldiers particularly from the soldiers who fought in WW1. To reflect the ANZAC spirit is to display acts of courage, endurance and mateship on the battle field for example to be courageous trying to help out an ally just like he had.