LAWLESS, Cecil Robert
| Service Number: | 6119 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 29 June 1916, 2 years Militia |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 18th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Merriwa, New South Wales, Australia, September 1895 |
| Home Town: | Merriwa, Upper Hunter Shire, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Merriwa Public School, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | Assistant town clerk |
| Died: | Died of wounds, 3rd Aust Casualty Clearing Station, France, 6 May 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
Grevillers British Cemetery Plot III, Row E, Grave No. 3 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Merriwa War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 29 Jun 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 6119, 18th Infantry Battalion, 2 years Militia | |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Oct 1916: | Involvement Private, 6119, 18th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '12' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ascanius embarkation_ship_number: A11 public_note: '' | |
| 25 Oct 1916: | Embarked Private, 6119, 18th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ascanius, Sydney | |
| 3 May 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 6119, 18th Infantry Battalion, Bullecourt (Second), GSW to stomach DOW 3rd Aust Casualty Clearing Station |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Evan Evans
From The City of Liverpool and District Historical Society
CECIL ROBERT LAWLESS: ASSISTANT LIVERPOOL TOWN CLERK
Cecil was born in Merriwa, NSW in 1895, the second son of James and Margaret. He must have been a bright young lad. By 1915, at the age of only 20, he had taken up the position of Assistant Town Clerk on Liverpool Council.
The following year, he made the brave decision to volunteer and join the Army. He applied for and was granted extended leave from Liverpool Council in order to enlist for active service.
Cecil was not to know that his time in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme would be tragically brief and futile.
Cecil joined as a private on 29 June 1916 aged 20. He embarked in Sydney on the ‘Ascanius’ on 25 October 1916 and arrived at Folkestone UK on 28 February 1917. He joined his unit the 18th Battalion 17 Reinforcements AIF in France on 25 March 1917. In May, the 18th Battalion was committed to the Second Battle of Bullecourt. The attack commenced on the 3 of May 1917. As the troops gamely fought their way through gaps in the barbed wire, Cecil received a gunshot wound to the abdomen and was taken to the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station at Bullecourt where he succumbed to his wounds on 6 May. He is buried in the British Cemetery at Grevillers France.
He is recorded on the ‘Cloke’ Honour Board that hangs in the Liverpool Library.
In a letter to Army Records in 1918, Cecil’s mother Margaret wrote that “he was very exact in everything he did’ and also mentions that she had received his diary. In an obituary that appeared in the Mudgee Guardian on 24 May 1917, Cecil is described as a ‘young man of great capabilities”, a ‘favourite’ who was “held in high esteem to those who knew him" and “of a pleasing and gentlemanly disposition and a man of excellent character”.
LEST WE FORGET
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