LEE, William Ernest
| Service Number: | WX4952 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 23 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Lance Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, 6 May 1915 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | miner |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Egypt, 23 October 1942, aged 27 years |
| Cemetery: |
El Alamein War Cemetery XVI. A. 15., |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour |
World War 2 Service
| 3 Sep 1939: | Involvement Lance Corporal, WX4952 | |
|---|---|---|
| 23 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Lance Corporal, WX4952, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
| 3 Jan 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX4952, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, from Fremantle to the Middle East | |
| 27 Jul 1942: | Wounded Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Private, WX4952, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, gunshot wound left shoulder | |
| 23 Oct 1942: | Promoted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Lance Corporal, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour William Ernest Lee's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
William was born in Ballarat East in 1911 (reg. 8606, as LEE-KEE), although his enlistment shows his year of birth as 1915. It's possible he and his four older siblings - all born as LEE KEE or LEE-KEE but later known as LEE - did not know their actual years of birth.
The four older children were made wards of the state when their father, Albert LEE KEE, was committed to Ararat Asylum. He died in 1908. His wife Lillian (Lily) had a further two children, father not named. William was the first of these and the younger child died in infancy. Lily died in 1918; she and Albert are interred at Ballarat New Cemetery (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/227955395/lillian-lee_kee).
The orphaned children all came to WA, possibly as there was a family connection, a first cousin named Hazel Rosetta McWILLIAMS, formerly of Ballarat.
William did not marry. He was killed in action in Egypt in 1942. Both he and his older brother George are recognised as Rats of Tobruk.
William is memorialised at El Alamein in Egypt. The inscription reads "His Duty Nobly Done Our Bill Resting in God's Keeping".