Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Who is William (Bill) Ruxton, he is not famous person not related to Ruxton the RSL leader, before I tell you who he is let me tell you a bit about his back ground
Bill as he was known was born in Setpember 1921 in a small town Comlin near Comber with a population of around 10,000 it is situated near the head of Strangford Lough in County Down, Northern Ireland.
Homeplace of Thomas Andrews the man who designed the Titanic.
He was the eldest of 5 boys, he and his second brother were both born in Ireland.
The family moved to Australia in 1928 and settled around the Hilton area.
When the second war broke out in 1939 he was unable to enlist because of his age.
However in Febuary 1943 he enlisted and soon was deployed to the 3rd Australian Welding Platoon within the AIF and was stationed at Bendigo.
He was transferred to Kapooka in NSW in June 1943.
When, in August 1943 he was deployed to Brisbane and disembarked for Miline Bay.
Which was the site of a major battle in August 1942, by the Japanese to attempt to capture the Bay the Australians defeated the landing.
Bill helped build a series of important Allied bases and airfields for the next 7months.
He came back to Australia on leave in March 1944 and in that same time was promoted to corporal. He stayed in Australia until December 1944 where he became an Engineer Grade 1 boilermaker in the AIF.
In January 1945 he was deployed by sea on the troop carrier Sea Ray to Moritai an island of 1,800 sq km, half between the Philippines and New Guinea.
The capture and holding of this island was important to the retaking of the Philippines.
The Japanese made a total of 82 air raids against the air strips at Moritai, from September 1944 to February, 1945.
Tokyo radio dubbed Moritai "graveyard of the 13th Air Force".
Bill helped maintain and build the numerous air bases on the island.
September that year he was promoted to sergeant and was deployed to Borneo where he stayed til the end of the war.
He was discharged in February 1946 after spending 31 months in active service.
Although Bill never spoke about his war experiences, we know like so many soldiers in those days, he contracted malaria and was given experimental drugs to combat it. He took the drugs like all the other soldiers and asked no questions, not knowing what the outcome would be in the years ahead.
During his time in the service he met and corresponded with a girl Joyce.
They were soon married and lived with Bill’s mother for some time as back in those times housing was scarce.
Fortunately Bill was due a war service house, which was being built at Findon and the young family which now had grown to three moved in.
Bill was employed at Mobil as a boilermaker and soon was a leading hand, he was instrumental in manufacturing the storage tanks that can now be seen Victoria road
Things where looking up, as the family had increased by one more, a son.
His company in 1961sent him to Darwin to build oil storage tanks, and again he was struck down with malaria.
He came home and started to complain about feeling tired. He could not do the every day things that he used to. He went to the doctor who diagnosed him with a bad case of the flu.
Things got worse so finally he was taken to hospital and it was there that they found out he had leukaemia.
Bill only lived for a few months after that.
I was to find out in the early 80’s, on reading an article that soldiers taking this experimental drugs to combat malaria all contracted leukaemia in different stages
Why is Bill Ruxton so important to me?
Although I was never privileged to meet the man. He did leave me with somebody he treasured and I treasure. His daughter Kaye, my wife.