WILSON, James Edward John
| Service Number: | 1441 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 21 July 1915, Melbourne, Vic. |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 13th Light Horse Regiment |
| Born: | Bolinda, Vic., 1894 |
| Home Town: | St Albans, Brimbank, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Employee |
| Died: | Heidelberg, Vic., 20 July 1954, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Fawkner Memorial Park Cemetery, Victoria |
| Memorials: | Bolinda State School Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Jul 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 1441, 13th Light Horse Regiment, Melbourne, Vic. | |
|---|---|---|
| 23 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 1441, 13th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '3' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 23 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 1441, 13th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Ceramic, Melbourne |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Peter Sneddon
James Edward John Wilson was born in 1894 in Sunbury to Alexander Wilson and Selena Matilda Sarah Donnelly (married 1875). Selena also gave birth to another 10 children: Elizabeth Isabel (b. 1876), William Alexander (b. 1877), Mary Louisa (1878), Herbert Frederick (b. 1882), Mary Louise Florence (b. 1885), Ethel Edice Alice (b. 1887), Wittlam James (b. 1889), Walter Alexander George Donnelly (b. 1892), Osborne Henry Clark (b. 1897), and Alexander Edgar (b. 1899).
John embarked for Egypt aboard the “Ceramic” in November 1915. He trained at the Zeitoun Camp on the outskirts of Cairo before embarking at Alexandria for Marseilles, France. John, by this time a gunner, arrived in England in early 1917 but was shortly thereafter hospitalized for pneumonia. Due to his illness, he was reclassified B1a1 (fit for light duty only for four weeks). A couple of months later, he was classified A3 (fit for overseas training camp, to which transferred for hardening, prior to rejoining unit overseas). Once recovered he proceeded to France to fight (in October 1917). Whilst in the 5th Machine Gun Battalion, in April 1918, he was wounded in action by severe gassing and was returned to England to convalesce. A month later he was discharged.
He returned to Australia aboard the “Orca” in February 1919, apparently on the same ship as Frank Pollard. Shortly after returning from the front, James married Ruby May Fallon in 1919, with whom he had Sylvia Matilda, a daughter born in 1925. After the war, he worked as a railway employee living in various locations including Newmarket, Sydenham and Melbourne. John died in 1954 in Heidelberg.