Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Pace SN 694 - 24th Battalion AIF 

To our gallant men of all ranks; to those who gained distinctions; to those who deserved distinctions, but in the fortunes and misfortunes of war did not receive them, to those who went through the campaign and came back to love and home, to those who bear the marks and endure the afflictions of wounds, but most of all to those who laid down their lives in the great cause, all honour and praise.

(Source – Forward to Harvey, W.J. (1920) The Red and White Diamond: Authorised History of the 24th Battalion Australian Imperial Force.)

William Pace was born in Widnes, Lancashire, England in 1876, a town on the river Mersey near Liverpool. He went to sea and was a Mariner which also included eleven years in the Royal Naval Reserve. He met his wife, Catherine Glanville in Fowey in Cornwell and they were married in 1898.

We do not know when William and Catherine came to Australia, however by the time William enlists on March 22, 1915 at the Bendigo Town Hall, he lists his wife Catherine, as his ‘Nearest of Kin’ (NOK) with an address in Cornwell.

We also do not know the circumstances that bought William to Australia. Being a sailor certainly provided opportunity. Maybe he had plans to bring the family here from Cornwell in the future. Maybe enlisting would provide him a free passage back to England. 

On his attestation paper for enlistment, he states he has four children and that his age is 37 years and 10 months.

Later correspondence with the Records Office in Melbourne after the war has the Pace family initially living in Epsom, and then later in Scott street, White Hills, both are located just north of Bendigo.

In March 1915, the first wave of Australian forces have left the country and are in Egypt preparing for the invasion of the Dardanelles Peninsula with other Commonwealth and French troops.

The day after enlisting, William would report to the AIF Depot Camp in Bendigo and he would spend the next 5 weeks in training there. At the end of April, he is appointed to join the about to be established 24th Battalion. 

The 24th Battalion was raised in May 1915 at Broadmeadows Camp in Victoria, as a unit of the all-volunteer Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Along with the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Battalion, the 24th formed part of the 6th Brigade, which was assigned to the 2nd Division.  It was decided to raise the battalion from Victorian volunteers. As a result of the hasty decision to raise the battalion very little training was carried out before the battalion sailed from Melbourne just a week after being formed.   (Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24th_Battalion_(Australia) )

We read in the Authorised History of the Twenty- fourth Battalion AIF – titled RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM.            ‘Early on the morning of Saturday, 8th May, 1915, the 24th Battalion marched out of Broadmeadows Camp and entrained for Port Melbourne. The knowledge that they were embarking for active service filled the troops with joy. Never did a keener body of men set out for the seat of war’

William Pace and the 24th battalion would embark on May 8, 1915 on board HMAT Euripides.                                                          'The long voyage to Egypt usually involved calling at the ports of Albany, Colombo, Suez, Port Said and finally Alexandria. Very hot weather was experienced, resulting in a good deal of sickness on board. On board the Euripides, which carried two Battalions, the 24th and the 23rd, eight soldiers died of illness mainly due to pneumonia and the severe heat endured whilst passing through the tropics, two being buried in Colombo and six buried at sea'.  (Source RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM. p.16 )

'The 24th would go into camp at Heliopolis an area outside Cairo. The food supply was good (from an army point of view) in Egypt, as the allowance of 8s4d. per day per man from the Egyptian Government added very materially to the quantity and quality of the rations. The troops made the most of their leisure hours m Heliopolis and Cairo, and the 24th boys became experts in the art of breaking camp at times and under circumstances which were contrary to orders'.(Source - RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM. p.20 )

'On 29th August, 1915, the 24th Battalion moved out of camp at 1 am, and entrained for Alexandria. After another weary journey in open trucks, we arrived at our port of embarkation, and boarded the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s S.S Nile, one of the fastest vessels of this line. From there it was to the Greek island of Lemnos in readiness for landing on the beach at Gallipoli'. (Source - RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM. p.22 )

In the early hours of Sunday morning, 5th September 1915, the Battalion received its baptism of fire at Gallipoli-

 ‘The firing line appeared to be so close that everybody had the impression we were going straight into action. Before us rose the ridges which had been scaled by the magnificent First Division in the face of determined opposition As we gazed at the beach and the rugged battlefield, the question on every man’s lips was, “ How did they do it, It looked impossible, but it was done, for those wonderful men were still there, holding doggedly the ground they had won’  (Source - RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM. p.26

Arriving on the peninsula on 5 September, the 24th served in the Lone Pine sector, taking over responsibility for the front line the on 12 September. The position was very close to the Turkish trenches and was hotly contested. The position was so tenuous, that the troops holding it had to be rotated regularly, and as a result the 24th spent the remainder of the campaign rotating with the 23rd Battalion to hold the position against determined Turkish mining operations. The battalion remained at Gallipoli for three months until the evacuation of Allied troops took place in December 1915.       (Source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24th_Battalion_(Australia)

On the day of the secret and successful evacuation from Anzac Cove, the 18th December,  the whole of the Lone Pine front was taken over by the 24th Battalion.

Private William Pace would survive 13 weeks on the cliffs of Gallipoli with not a single entry for illness or injury recorded on his service record, however the total casualties suffered by the Battalion on Gallipoli, in addition to sickness, were about 100 killed and died of illness, etc, and close on 100 wounded.                                 (Source- RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM. p.58 )

Following the tragic Gallipoli campaign, it was back to the Greek Island of Lemnos.

‘The troops were now in a shabby condition. Many of them were lean and worn, numbers in bad health, and all reduced in weight and strength. If they had been marched through Melbourne as they left Gallipoli they would have provided a striking contrast to the imposing body of men that left Australia eight months earlier. The Battalion spent Christmas at Mudros. Mails from Australia had been held up here owing to the impending evacuation, and parcels from home provided an abundance of good things to celebrate the season amid these happier surroundings.’ (Source - RED AND WHITE DIAMOND by Sgt. W J Harvey MM. p. 59 )

On 8th January, 1916, the Battalion embarked on H.M.T Minnewaska for Alexandria, en route for their new Australian base at Tel-el-Kebir. Back in Egypt they took part in the defence of the Suez Canal. In early 1916, the AIF was reorganised and expanded, to prepare it for further operations most likely in Europe.

In March 1916, the 24th Battalion along with the other AIF Infantry divisions began transferring to France and Belgium to serve in the trenches of the Western Front. They would sail from Alexandria again for Marseilles on the southern coast of France.

Their first major action in France came at Pozières and Mouquet Farm in July and August 1916.  

The Battle of Pozières (23 July – 3 September 1916) took place in France around the village of Pozières, during the Battle of the Somme. The costly fighting ended with the British in possession of the plateau north and east of the village, in a position to menace the German bastion of Thiepval from the rear. The Australian official historian Charles Bean wrote that Pozières ridge "is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth." (Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pozi%C3%A8res  )

William would be wounded on July 29 and sent behind the lines to the 44th Casualty Clearing Station. The next day his wound is adjudged as more serious and he is transferred to Estaples the Commonwealth forces major depot in Northern France. The next day he is transported by train to Calais to await a vessel to take him back to England. This takes twelve days to be become available and on August 12, William would be crossing the Englaish Channel for the country of his birth. He is taken to the Australian Hospital at Warren Rd, Guildford.

He would spend a nearly a month here being treated for a ‘Gun Shot Wound’ (GSW) to the head. On September 6, 1916 he is transferred to the Convalescent Hospital at Epsom and would spend here the next two months recuperating. On September 11, he is well enough to be granted two weeks furlough, presumably to travel to see family in England. Recovered, on September 29, he is attached for duty for the Depot at Heytesbury an Artillery training base on the edge of Salisbury plain.

On November 11, 1916 William reports into the Australian Forces depot at Perham Downs in the south of England. This was the Australian Overseas Training Brigade, designed to toughen up convalescent men prior to being sent back to the front. At this stage William would spend the next 9 months at this depot further recuperating and training, expecting to be sent back to the front any day.  

On July 27, 1917 he would be ‘Taken On Strength’ (TOS) from the 24th battalion into the Australian Army Ordnance (AAO) Corp. Now aged 40, William’s front line infantry days are surely behind him.

The AAO Corp are concerned with the supply and administration of the AIF overseas forces, as well as the demolition and disposal of explosives and salvage of battle-damaged equipment. (Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Australian_Army_Ordnance_Corps  )

William would serve in this Corp through till after Armistice is declared in November 1918. In December, when the work of the Corp starts to drop away as the war is over, he would again be transferred back to the camp at Heytesbury camp and join the thousands of AIF awaiting ships to return to Australia. 

Unlike his colleagues, being English with family and friends still there, William would struggle remaining a disciplined soldier after the war concluded. In January he leaves the Depot at Heytesbury and is Absent Without Leave (AWL) for 7 weeks. He returns in April and suffers the full force of Military discipline – 28 days of Field Punishment No.2 and 81 days forfeiture of pay.   

Field Punishment was a common punishment during World War I. A commanding officer could award field punishment for up to 28 days, while a court martial could award it for up to 90 days, either as Field Punishment Number One or Field Punishment Number Two.

Field Punishment Number One, consisted of the convicted man being placed in fetters and handcuffs or similar restraints and attached to a fixed object, such as a gun wheel or a fence post, for up to two hours per day. This punishment was abolished in 1923. In Field Punishment Number Two, the prisoner was placed in fetters and handcuffs but was not attached to a fixed object and was still able to march with his unit. This was a relatively tolerable punishment. In both forms of field punishment, the soldier was also subjected to hard labour and loss of pay.                                                                         (Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_punishment )

William would remain at the AIF camp at Weymouth till May 3, when he is granted a passage back to Australia. He would embark on HM Leicestershire and disembark in Melbourne in June 21, 1919.  

Private William Pace, of the 24th Battalion survived Gallipoli and was wounded on the western front. He served 4 years and 4 months with the AIF and would return to Bendigo aged 42. His comrades in the 24th battalion fought on till the war concluded, losing 909 men killed with 2,494 men wounded.

Private William Pace is remembered by the people of White Hills. The names of the local lads who sacrificed their lives and those that were fortunate to return from the Great War are shown on the embossed copper plaques on the White Hills Arch of Triumph, at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.