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Mary (nee Sheedy) lived in Kalgoorlie and Patrick Thomas Cashen in Coogardie prior to their marriage in August 1911. They had three sons all born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, John (Jack), James (Jim) and the youngest, Paul (Bill) on the 12th May, 1918.
The strongly Catholic family moved to initially live in Norwood, then Mile End. However, when Paul was just five years old his 52-year-old father, Patrick died at Kalgoorlie on January 1st 1924 and was buried in the local Roman Catholic Cemetery. Back in South Australia, Mary continued to bring up her boys, seeing them all take an active part in Church activities including being educated at the Thebarton Brothers of St John the Baptist, then at Christian Brothers’ College in Wakefield Street. Bill was also an alter boy at the Thebarton Queen of Angels’ Church. Post school, Bill became an indent agent and salesman, overseeing the purchase and shipping of goods.
He became a Member and later an office holder in the Adelaide branch of the Catholic Young Mens’ Society in ’37, then Secretary in ’38. In the latter role, Bill was also pro-active in thanking the hard workers with whom he came in contact. In a letter to the May edition of the Southern Cross he wrote: ‘To the Editor, the "Southern Cross." Dear Sir,—Might I be permitted, on behalf of the committee and members of the Adelaide Branch of the Catholic Young Men's Society, to make use of your columns to express our deep debt of gratitude to the willing band of lady-helpers who so ably assisted us in organising and carrying out our exhibit in the National Flower Day celebrations, and also to convey to them our very sincere thanks for the manner in which they helped to make a success of the annual ball on Thursday, May 18. The outstanding success of both these activities of the Branch was, in no small measure, due to the unfailing help rendered us by the ladies' committee, and for their magnificent efforts on our behalf, we are, indeed, deeply grateful. —I am, yours etc.; P. W. Cashen, hon. secretary, Adelaide Branch, Catholic Young Men's Society.’ That same year Paul was also elected chairman for his obvious leadership skills and presented with an award for his regular attendance.
At the December meeting, the Society had a guest speaker who, considering the looming war, chose a challenging topic. ‘Father Bede delivered a very interesting and educational lecture on the remarkable changes brought about in Italy during the last few years by the Fascist Government and went at lengths to describe the vast differences between German Nazism. and Italian Fascism, which are so often linked together by the daily press. A vote of thanks to Father Bede; moved by N. F. Smith and seconded by P. W. Cashen, was carried with acclamation.’
Just prior to his enlistment on the 29th June 1940, 22 year old Paul was on the branch organising committee for the 12th Annual Ball being held in "The Australia," Angas Street, City. It was lauded in the May edition of the Southern Cross as ‘one of the outstanding social successes of the season. Conducted on non-cabaret lines, with a sumptuous home-made supper, brilliant stage and supper decorations, and a welter of novelties as features, together with a general atmosphere of sociability and gaiety, the fixture has become very popular in recent seasons. Old and new style dancing, commencing with the grand polonaise at 8.15 p.m., will continue until 1 a.m. Keith Gale's Orchestra will again provide the music, and the three Commanes will provide the music for the supper dances. Admission is by invitation (to be presented at door), and the subscription is 3/. It is expected that this year's function will assume a martial air with the various dress uniforms of members serving in the militia forces and also air force trainees, to whom special invitations will be issued through the Catholic Soldiers' Guild. The president congratulated the present secretary, P. W. Cashen, and wished "him every success on his appointment to the A.I.F.”
Bill became SX7000 in the newly formed 2/48th Battalion and within three months was appointed as Acting Lance Corporal. His relatively carefree life was to change irrevocably. His initial days were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, now part of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds before he and other new enlistees headed to Woodside for their preliminary training. A fascinating description of the recruits’ life in the motor pavilions is described in John Glenn’s Tobruk to Tarakan with the observation that ‘officially known as U.R.T.I. (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection) it was more generally referred to as urti or Woodside throat, or else, from the barking cough with which it was accompanied, and which echoed through the sleeping quarters of troops at night, as dog’s disease.’ Then, following a 6:30 wake up, roll call and breakfast a parade was called followed by a march. At this point Corporal Bill Cashen was the orderly room corporal with Captains Tucker and Hart in command.
During his pre-embarkation leave, the Catholic Young Men's Society made a trophy presentation in October to Bill Cashen on his resignation as secretary, a position he had held for two years. He was then part of the large contingent of 2/48th Battalion enlistees embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East, on the 7th November 1940, arriving on the 19th December 1940. On this voyage, Bill received another promotion to A/Corporal, with the rank of Corporal being confirmed soon after disembarking. Close friendships were forged, most to last a lifetime. Their 2/48th Battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica before going to Tobruk at the start of April 1941 where the dust, flies, heat, minimal water supplies and constant bombardment were quite a challenge to these fresh new enlistees.
Within eight months, Bill and William Vine SX5885 of the 2/43rd were both wounded in action, Bill with a gunshot wound to his thigh. The September ’41 issue of the News carried the announcement: ‘Catholic Secretary Wounded in Action - Mrs. M. Cashen, of Parker street. Mile End, has been advised that her youngest son Cpl P W Cashen, has been wounded in action. Cpl. Cashen, who is 23 enlisted in June last year and sailed overseas with an infantry unit in November He has been in action in the Near East and has been at Tobruk since March. Before enlisting, he was a keen tennis player, and secretary of the Adelaide branch of the Catholic Young Men's Society.’ Through the Southern Cross newspaper, members were asked ‘to remember in their prayers Bro. Bill Cashen, reported wounded overseas. We pray for a speedy recovery.’ As he recovered, Bill kept in contact with the Catholic Men’s’ Club, sending seasonal greetings at the end of that year. He also attended Trig school undertaking a clerk’s course while he was recuperating and before re-joining his battalion.
Fourteen months later, aged 24, Paul was killed in action on the 31st October, 1942. In his book ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’ John Glenn describes that time “which was to be the most bitter and bloody fighting of the war. When next the sun drove away those shadows from the desert, death would have reaped a rich harvest of gallant men. And of the 2/48th Battalion only forty-one weary troops would remain in the field.” He continued: “At zero hour, 1 a.m. 31st October, the artillery opened up with a receding barrage – one that creeps back on itself. The attack was towards the guns themselves, the enemy being between the troops and the guns… Added to this, the troops came under heavy shell fire as they were forming up, and suffered casualties before they commenced their attack… One gun was landing shells right amongst the men. As soon as the main road was reached the two leading companies came under murderous fire, and from then until they reached their objective, 2,250 yards from the start line, the whole advance was fought in fierce hand-to-hand fighting.” His final summing up was ‘Truly it can be said of these men, “They fought themselves and their enemy to a standstill until flesh and blood could stand no more, then they went on fighting.” In added high praise about those who tended the wounded and collected those killed in action “It says much for them that not one man was missing in their search over the four thousand yards from Trig 29 to the Blockhouse, or in the attack of 3,600 yards to Ring Contour 25.” An horrific battle for the proud and very brave 2/48th Battalion.
This is again described in ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’: ‘Meanwhile battalion headquarters, continuing to move forward, passed through the gap between B and C Companies, only to find themselves four hundred yards in advance of the leading companies and meeting heavy enemy resistance close to the final objective. Casualties were mounting among the headquarters personnel. Corporal Bill Cashen and Private Murray Nicholson of the orderly room staff, Sergeant Lindsay Goode and Corporal Tas Scutt of the signals, and Private Vin McGahan had all been killed.
The Official-War Correspondent, Kenneth Slessor in lengthy newspaper articles published in March ’43 described the conditions at the time, including how Private Percy Gratwick and Sergeant Bill Kibby won individual Victoria Crosses for their exceptional bravery.
‘Then came the night of October 30/31, "Our job was to cut west across Thompson's Post take the railway, straddle the coast road and then work back cleaning up enemy pockets and strong posts," said Martin. "We straddled the road all right and then started to work back east. D Company cleaning up between the road and the sea. It was easy at first, but then we ran into real opposition. We saw a couple of lights shoot up from a ridge—actually there were two humps, one on the left and one on the right, with a saddle be-tween. We got within 50 yards and then they opened fire-and how!
"Three Spandau's started shooting from the hump on the left and two more and a couple of three inch mortars from the right. At first it came waist-high, but when we went down like wet sacks they, sent the stuff skimming just over the top of the ground. We got most of our casualties there. Captain Robbins hadn't made a mistake to that stage, refusing to be bluffed.’
These were some of South Australia’s finest young men, all sadly grieved, so many families’ lives changed forever. Definitive news slowly drifted back about that horrific battle where the 2/48th lost 199 men killed or wounded of their 292 involved in that night’s conflict – over 68 percent of their men.
The Chronicle reported the full extent of the losses incurred, including Bill’s death, in the December publication: SX11133 Pte. George J. Bowden 2/48th North Adelaide; SX7296 Cpl. Roland Bryant. 2/48th Seacliff: SX7000 A Cpl. Paul W Cashen, 2/48th Mile End; SX4129 Pte. Alfred J. Clarke. 2/48th South Plympton; SX6913 Pte. Eric V. Lipson, Inf. Semaphore; SX2328 Cpl. P. C. Millowick, 2/43rd Glencoe West; SX6775 Pte. Vincent deP. McGahan. 2/48th Glenelg; SX13102 Pte. Thomas V. McMullin, 2/48th North Adelaide; SX137I7 Pte. R. C. Neilson, 2/43rd Norwood; SX 10522 Pte. Murray T. Nicholson 2/48th Prospect: SX8I43 Pte. Harry S. Searle. 2/48th Alberton. Died Of Wounds. — SX8979 Cpt. Bryan J. Hemmings, 2/43rd Kalangadoo; SX15837 Pte. Richard D. Hill. 2/43rd Whyalla. Believed Killed. SX13512 Pte. Charles E. Dolling. 2/48th Wokurna. The News also carried the announcement that ‘Mrs. M. Cashen, of Parker street, Mile-End, has been notified that her youngest son, Corporal Paul William Cashen, 25, was killed in action on October 31. 'During seven months in Tobruk Cpl. Cashen was wounded. He -also served, in Syria and Palestine. He left Australia in 1940. For many years he was secretary of the Adelaide branch of the Catholic Young Men's Society.’
Initially Bill was buried in the field before being re-buried in March ’43, then in March ’45 in his final resting place at the El Alamein War Cemetery, Plot A2 Row C, Grave 15. His parents chose the inscription ‘Loved in Life, honoured in death’. He is surrounded by others from his 2/48th Battalion, Privates Ronald Grist SX13580, Andrew Warner WX14061, 27-year-old William Ridley WX9913, 38-year-old Frank Cornelius WX9930, 25-year-old L/Cpl Ronald Templeton WX9832, 24-year-old Cpl Paul Cashen SX7000, Privates 29-year-old Edward Edwards SX12876, 35-year-old John Cox SX10362, 25-year-old SX6896 Lance Chapman and 23-year-old Thomas Holmes SX9330, 33-year-old Vincent McGahan SX6775 all of whom were killed on the 31st October ’42.
The November issue of the Southern Cross paid a fulsome tribute to Paul: ‘The wave of pride that swept the nation in Australia's prominent part in the recent victorious Battle of Egypt has had its grim counterpart of sorrow in many a home and family as the official casualty lists have been released. The sad news has been conveyed to Mrs. M. Cashen, of Parker Street, Mile End, that her youngest son, Paul William, was killed in action on October 31. The deceased was born in Kalgoorlie, W.A. in 1918. His father, the late Mr. P. Cashen, resided for several years in the western State after having previously been a member of the C.Y.M.S. in Victoria. Coming to South Australia in boyhood, "Bill" (as he was more familiarly known) was educated at The Brothers of St.-John the Baptist (Thebarton) and Christian Brothers' College (Wakefield Street). He was for several years an altar boy at Queen of Angels' Church, and, with his two elder brothers, earned the utmost confidence and respect of parish Priests and parishioners of Thebarton.
‘After leaving school he was employed by Mr. D. S. Moodie, indent agent, of Adelaide, until he enlisted in June 1940. He was a prominent member of the Catholic Young Men's Society and represented the State in tennis at the first interstate C.Y.M.S. carnival in Melbourne at Christmas, 1937. He was also well-known in tennis circles in the West Torrens district. He held the secretaryship of the Adelaide Branch of the C.Y.M.S. for two years prior to enlistment.
‘Cpl. Cashen sailed for overseas in November 1940—just two years prior to his death, in which time he served in Palestine, Syria, Libya (including seven months in Tobruk, where he was wounded during the historic siege), and finally in Egypt, where "he poured out the rich, red wine of youth."
‘Sterling Character. No finer tributes to the sterling character of the late Cpl. Cashen can be quoted than those appearing in the C.Y.M.S. magazine, "The Catholic Young Man," for November. Mourning his loss to the Society, a colleague writes: "He radiated Catholic manliness, promoted harmony, and good-fellowship without visible effort, and inspired his fellow-members by his exemplary conduct. He was possessed of a most likeable disposition, a quiet sense of humor and a gentle nature in its finest sense." He was of the type the C.Y.M.S. and the Catholic community could ill afford to lose—a student of Catholic Action and a potential leader.
‘To his sorrowing mother and brothers, James and John, heartfelt and widespread sympathy has already been expressed, and it is a consolation (that many bereaved would desire) to know that the souls of their dear departed ones could face their Maker with the calm, life-like confidence of Paul William Cashen. May God grant him eternal reward!’
Fellow soldiers, Bryan Murphy SX6726 and John Byrne SX9353 as well as family continued to remember Bill.
November 1942, CASHEN.-Killed in action. Egypt Cpl. Paul William (Bill) Cashen youngest son of Mrs. M. Cashen of Mile-End and the late Mr. P. Cashen and the loving brother of Jack and Jim Requiescat in pace. CASHEN. — Cpl. Paul William, youngest son of Mrs. M. Cashen, Parker Street, Mile End, and the late Mr. P. Cashen, Kalgoorlie, W.A., killed in action, Egypt, October 31. Loving brother of John and James. RIP
October 1943, CASHEN.—Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of Paul William Cashen, whose anniversary occurs on October 31. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on his soul. CASHEN. —In loving memory of Paul (Bill), killed in action, El Alamein, Oct 31, 1942. —Always remembered by mother Jack, Jim and aunties. CASHEN.—In memory of Cpl. P. W. (Bill) Cashen, A.I.F. killed in action at EI Alamein, Oct. 31. 1942. Death has not dimmed our thoughts of you. —inserted by his mates Don, Tonk and George.
Advertiser Tuesday 31 October 1944, CASHEN-—ln fond memory of a pal, Cpl. Paul (Bill). 2/48th Btn killed in action. El Alamein, Oct. 31, 1942.—Inserted - by Pte. J. Byrne. CASHEN. —In loving memory of Paul William, killed In action at El Alamein. Oct 31. 1942.—Inserted by his mother, brothers and aunties.
Advertiser Wednesday 31 October 1945, CASHEN. COL Paul William, killed In action at El Alamein, October 31. 1942. —Ever remembered by mother and family. CASHEN.—Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of Paul William Cashen, killed in action at El Alamein on October 31, 1942. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on his soul.—Inserted by his mother, bothers and aunt.
Advertiser Thursday 31 October 1946, CASHEN.— In memory of Bill. 2/48th Battalion who fell at Alamein.—Remembered by Brian Murphy and John Byrne. CASHEN.—In memory of Cpl. P. W. Cashen, killed in action El Alamein, October 31, 1942.—Ever remembered by mother, aunt, Jack and Jim.
Advertiser Friday 31 October 1947, CASHEN.—in loving memory of Bill, killed in action at El Alamein. October 31, 1942.—Inserted by his mother, brothers and aunts. Requiescat In pace.

Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.