Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

A feature of the website for the AIF Project is the ability to search by Address. These men have given their address as Wooroolin but are NOT featured on the WW1 Honour Board or the “For King and Country” Photographic Memorial
Cartwight, William Bolam SN 7043 Wooroolin, Queensland 25th Battalion, 21st Reinforcement
This man enlisted whilst living at Wooroolin per his Army records but is not included on the Wooroolin WW1 Honour Board. He was probably a seasonal worker but here goes with his story.
William Bolam Cartwright was born in 1880 at Pickhill, Yorkshire, the 10th of 12 children of Edward and Ann Cartwright. Williams’s father was a Farmer at Barn Farm, Pickhill which had 71 acres and in 1871 employed 2 boys. By 1881 he had 141 acres and employed 1 labourer.
Williams’s father died in 1898 at the farm and probate shows he left the farm to his wife. William was living with his mother in 1901 but in 1909 he boarded the steamer Somerset in Liverpool and arrived in Sydney on 2 Aug 1909. His name is shown as passenger in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald Friday 6 August 1909 - Page 8.
The next time we see William is on the Qld electoral rolls and he was living in Kin Kin near Cooran in 1915 and working as a labourer.
In Jul 1917 William was working in Wooroolin and travelled to Brisbane to enlist in the Australian Army. Sixteen men applied and only 8 were accepted – William was one of the ones declared unfit! He had a hernia which was operated on 4 days later.
Then on 17 August he was declared fit. The newspaper report of the following day stated that 8 men were declared fit naming William. Charles Adermann another Wooroolin lad, the future Sir Charles Adermann, was attempting to enlist on same day and was refused as medically unfit.
The army files of William Lewis tell us that he stood 5 feet 3 ½ inches in his socks and had a fair complexion with brown hair and blue eyes. His denomination was Church of England and had no distinguishing features. He gave his brother Robert as NOK. Robert was still living at their home town of Pickhill – maybe he had taken over the farm when their father died.
William was assigned to 25th Battalion, 21st Reinforcement and his unit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board SS Canberra on 16 November 1917.
Before departure William was allowed home leave and he took 4 days between 5pm on 5 Nov and 8:30am 11 Nov. The paperwork includes information on travel to Wooroolin – 13 hours by train each way…
On arrival at Freemantle 20 days later William was suffering from Mumps and moved to Hospital. After recovery he was given further training before he re-embarked from Freemantle on-board the Ormonde on 13 Mar 1918 and disembarked to Hospital Suez on 30 Apr 1918 suffering from Influenza. On 30 May 1918 he re-embarked at Alexandria for Southampton arriving 5 Jun 1918.
In Aug 1918 he was transferred to 28th Battalion and sent to France. It seems he was in the Hospital Unit of the 28th. Then in Apr 1919 he was transferred to the Graves Registration Detachment for 4 months before returning to Australia on 25 Sep 1919.
Another learning curve for me. The website of the Department of Veteran Affairs has a section for the Australian graves Detachment.
More than 1100 Australians served with the Australian Graves Detachment, which was formed in March 1919. Men in the unit worked in northern France where the AIF fought many of its battles. Their role was to:
• exhume the war dead
• identify bodies where possible
• re-bury bodies in central cemeteries
Kit for the men included rubber gloves, oil-skin overalls, hundreds of bars of soap, and creosol (an antibacterial disinfectant).
The work was distressing. Many of the exhumed bodies had been dead between 9 and 12 months and were in varying stages of decomposition. One member of the detachment, typical of many, recalled having felt sick 'dozens of times'.
Some members of the detachment were veterans of the fighting on the Western Front who volunteered for the job. Most were men who had enlisted too late in the war to see fighting and had reached France after the Armistice.
Between April and August 1919, the Australian Graves Detachment exhumed and re-buried almost 5500 men. https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/where-australians-served/continued-service-1919
How wonderful of our Country to honour our dead soldiers but what a terribly awful job for the men in this unit.
William lived at Cooroy after the war where he owned a 160 acre property where he ran a dairy. There are many articles reported on Trove when he sold some of his cattle and perhaps one at a social event in 1929.
William died in Gympie, aged 63 years, and it seems his body was not found for a period of time. His death was registered for William Cartwright, 21/06/1944, 1944/C/1831 with unknown parents.
The Nambour Chronicle of 14 Jul 1944 reported: Statutory Notice to Creditors. Re WILLIAM BOLAM CARTWRIGHT late of Old Tewantin Road, Cooroy in the State of Queensland, Dairy Farmer, deceased. NOTICE is hereby given that all creditors and other persons having claims against the Estate of the abovenamed William Bolam Cartwright late of Old Tewantin Road, Cooroy in the State of Queensland, deceased, who died on or about the twenty-first day of June, 1944, at Gympie in the said State, are hereby required to send their claims to the Public Curator, Brisbane, on or before the thirteenth day of September, 1944. And that after the expiration of the last-mentioned date the Public Curator will proceed to distribute the assets of the said deceased amongst the parties entitled thereto, having regard only to the claims of which he shall then have had notice. Dated this thirteenth day of July, 1944. F. M. ALLSOP, Deputy Public Curator, Brisbane.
There is a burial record at Cooroy Cemetery for “Cartwright Unknown” in the Anglican Ashes section – Row D, Section 5. My friend is going to check out the records at the Cooroy-Noosa Gene Centre to see if it is him.
Williams’s property, Por 5v in the County of March, Parish of Tewantin, was sold by Auction on 22 May 1945. The Nambour Chronicle of 11 May 1945 advertised the sale by RA McDonald Auctioneer and stock included 65 cattle and 2 horses so someone must have been looking after the farm after his death.
William had owned three blocks in the parish over different years per the indexes at the Cooroy-Noosa Genealogical Group. Por 5v was on what is now known as Lake McDonald Dr and just 2km north of the Noosa Botanical Gardens.
Lest We Forget