Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Warrant Officer 2nd Class William Swanson Grant 2nd AIF No VX27014

William (Bill) Grant was a third generation Australian of fully Scottish descent. His grandfather, Alexander Grant, had come to Victoria during the gold rushes of the 1850s and settled at Learmonth, west of Ballarat. He was a boot and saddle maker. Bill’s father, John Swanson Grant, born in Learmonth, had served in the AIF during the First World War with the 39th Battalion AIF, as a sergeant.

Bill, born in 1915, was the second son of John Swanson Grant. However, his older brother, Alexander Fergusson Grant, died in 1932, leaving Bill as the only son.  Bill left school at the age of fifteen to become a furniture salesman and, retaining his father’s keen interest in military matters, joined the Militia in 1935. He served in a field artillery unit, rising to the rank of Lance Sergeant. In June 1940, with several of his friends, he volunteered for service in the Second A.I.F. and was posted to the 2/11th Field Regiment in August, stationed at Puckapunyal, Victoria. In late September, part of the 2/11th moved north to Bonegilla, on the Murray River, where it spent six months in raising its level of training to full combat readiness. It was equipped only with 18 pounder guns from the First World War, but they were still valid for learning the principles of accurate artillery shooting, twenty-two years later. The Regiment also carried out a major exercise in desert warfare in the Mallee, indicating the area in which it would be first committed to operations, the Middle East. During August and September 1940, Bill advanced up the promotion ladder was appointed Bombardier.

Warned for active service in early April 1941, the 2/11th moved to Sydney by train and embarked in the Ile de France, a passenger liner of 43,450 tons, on 10 April. They sailed next day as part of a huge convoy carrying some 25,000 troops in such well-known ships as Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary, Mauretania and Nieuw Amsterdam. After calling at Colombo for a break and replenishment of supplies, the convoy steamed on to the Suez Canal. Ile de France disembarked her passengers on 14 May and they began a road and rail journey into Palestine, to their next home, a camp at Hill 95, between Gaza and El Majdal.

Soon after their arrival, allied concerns arose regarding a possible attack by the Vichy French out of Syria, a short distance to the north. The 7th Australian Division, with British forces, was given the task of attacking the French first and pre-empting any strike that they might make. The French forces defending Syria were strong, well trained and equipped. The 2/11th Field Regiment, as part of the 7th Division, had an important role to play, giving the kind of heavy fire support for which they were trained, assisting the infantry to break through the French defences at a reasonable cost. The attack began in mid-June and soon the 2/11th was drawn into the battle, using for the first time its newly acquired 25 pounder guns. It took a little time for everyone to become accustomed to the use of the new weapons. The French counter-attacked after the initial allied onslaught, but the 7th Division maintained the pressure and by 12 July the French were willing to surrender. It had been a hard fight: 416 Australians were killed and 1130 wounded in the campaign. In October 1942 Bill was promoted to Sergeant.

The 2/11th Field Regiment remained in Syria and Palestine until after the Japanese had entered the war. The Australian Government then brought the 6th and 7th Divisions home in early 1942 to stem the Japanese advance into the South-west Pacific. Japanese naval activity in the Indian Ocean in early 1942 was so vigorous that returning convoys had to be re-routed to avoid the fleet of powerful warships and submarines commanded by Admiral Nagumo. Because of this rapid re-adjustment of the troopships’ routes they ran out of fresh rations and for a few weeks the men lived mainly off tinned fish, nick-named “goldfish”. From Suez they went to Colombo, then back across the Indian Ocean to Mombasa, from where they travelled south along the African coast to Durban. There they resumed their eastwards passage, arriving in Australia in late May. On 30 May Bill married Marcella Irwin of Glen Iris, Melbourne, with whom he was to have two children, David Alexander b. 1945 and Frances Margaret b. 1948. Bill received promotion to Acting Warrant Officer Class Two in July 1942. This promotion was confirmed on 1 July 1943.

From mid 1942 and until September 1944, the 2/11th was committed to home defence operations and training. It was based initially in South Australia, then southern Queensland and from January 1944 it was based in the Darwin area. While the Regiment was in northern Australia, Bill was assigned to communication duties as a motor cyclist. Unfortunately, the terrain was so rough and the suspension of the available motor cycles was so harsh that his wrists were seriously injured. Bill persisted in trying to master his motor cycle but his wrists only deteriorated. This episode came to a climax in March 1944 when his medical classification was downgraded. Although he continued to serve with the 2/11th, Bill was still unfit for operational duties when the Regiment was sent to New Guinea in September 1944. It was a parting of the ways: as the 2/11th went north, Bill went south to Melbourne, where he performed a variety of administrative duties, for which he clearly was fit, until he was discharged on 19 April 1945.

On returning to civilian life, Bill went back to selling furniture at Myers, until he and his very old friend George Ristrom, also a member of the 2/11th, established a business partnership, and bought a shop in Cheltenham, Melbourne. Bill continued to be active in business and on the golf course for the next twenty years until illness overtook him and he died in 1969, leaving Marcella, Alex and Frances to keep his memory alive, assisted by other members of the family and many old friends from the 2/11th Field Regiment. Bill had a strong, outward-going personality. He was popular in the 2/11th Field Regiment, and retained those connections actively for the twenty-five years between his discharge from the unit and his death.

Robert O’Neill

Nephew of William Swanson Grant