SPIVEY, Percy William
| Service Number: | 4909 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 November 1915 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 60th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia , January 1888 |
| Home Town: | North Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Furnace man |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 27 November 1916 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Nov 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4909, 6th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 4909, 6th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Wiltshire embarkation_ship_number: A18 public_note: '' | |
| 7 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 4909, 6th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Wiltshire, Melbourne | |
| 9 May 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 58th Infantry Battalion | |
| 21 Jul 1916: | Transferred AIF WW1, Private, 60th Infantry Battalion | |
| 27 Nov 1916: | Involvement Private, 4909, 60th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 4909 awm_unit: 60th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-11-27 | |
| 4 Oct 1917: | Honoured Mention in Dispatches, Tending wounded comrades while under fire 26th November 1917, Australian Gazette, 4 October 1917 on page 2624 at position 187 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From How We Served
The private commemoration for; - 4909 Private Percy William Spivey MID of Port Melbourne & North Melbourne, Victoria who prior to enlistment for War Service on the 16th of November 1915 had been employed as a furnace man. Percy was allocated to reinforcements for the 6th Battalion 1st AIF and was embarked for Egypt and further training on the 7th of March 1916.
Following being shipped to France, where Percy arrived on the 30th of June, he was sent to the 5th Division Base Depot, after which he was reallocated as a reinforcement for the 60th Battalion which he joined in the days after the Battle of Fromelles on the 21st of July.
By November his Battalion were engaged in operations on the Somme, and it was here that Percy was ‘Mentioned in Despatches’ for going forwards to assist members of his Unit who had become casualties by dressing their wounds whilst exposed to enemy fire. Private Percy Spivey was killed in action shortly after this act of bravery on the 27th of November and his body was not able to be brought back for a formal burial, so instead he was hastily buried close to where he was killed. Percy’s field burial became lost and he has no formal official grave. Due to this, Percy was officially commemorated at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial where those members of the 1st AIF who were killed in Northern France but have no formal burial are recorded.
Back in Australia, Percy’s grieving family had his supreme sacrifice made during ‘The Great War’ privately commemorated at his mother’s grave within Melbourne General Cemetery, Victoria.
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