WOOTTON, Sylvanus Kerns
| Service Number: | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 6 February 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 45th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Redfern, New South Wales, Australia, 30 January 1898 |
| Home Town: | Ashfield, Ashfield, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Carpenter |
| Died: | Killed in action, Messines, Belgium, 7 June 1917, aged 19 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Menin Gate Memorial (Commonwealth Memorial to the Missing of the Ypres Salient) |
World War 1 Service
| 6 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2025, 45th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 2025, 45th Infantry Battalion , --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Warilda embarkation_ship_number: A69 public_note: '' | |
| 22 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 2025, 45th Infantry Battalion , HMAT Warilda, Sydney |
Help us honour Sylvanus Kerns Wootton's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Sylvanus Kerns Wootton was known as ‘Wanie’ to his family and friends. He was a son of George and Phoebe Wootton of Ashfield, New South Wales.
His older brother, 3525 Private George Charles Howell Wootton, 53rd Battalion AIF, was killed in action three months later at Passchendaele on 19 October 1917, aged 25.
‘Wanie’ Wootton had just turned 18 years of age when he enlisted in February 1916. His father had given him a letter of consent which read, “The bearer, Sylvanus Kerns Wootton, has my consent, to join the Engineers, or Light Horse, Engineers in preference. His brother is already in the trenches, my other son tried to enlist, but owing to a defect in the right eye was rejected, I have only one other lad, but he is a cripple, when the time comes, I will enlist myself. Yours faithfully, G. Wootton, father.” (The father was 48 years old at the time)
Sylvanus ‘Wanie’ Wootton joined the 45th Battalion in France during January 1917 and was killed during the Australian advance at Messines in Belgium. His remains were lost and he has no known grave.
Click images to start slideshow.