William Albert Davies (abt. 1892 - abt. 1918)

Born about 9 Dec 1892 in Swanport, South Australia, Australia [uncertain]

Ancestors

Died about 4 Apr 1918 at about age 25 in Somme, France [uncertain]

Biography

Mary and Joseph’s second son, William Albert, was born on 9 September 1892.
On the 28 August 1915, he enlisted in the A.I.F. After a very thorough medical examination, which concluded with a comment “tattoos on both forearms”, he was requested to repeat the Oath of Allegiance, saying;
I, William Albert Davies, swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord, the King, in the Australian Imperial Forces, from 28 August 1915 until the end of the war, and a further period of four months thereafter, unless sooner, lawfully discharged, dismissed or removed therefrom; and that I will resist His Majesty’s enemies and cause his Majesty’s peace to be kept and maintained: and that I will, in all matters appertaining to my service, faithfully discharge my duty according to law. So help me God.
No record seems to have been kept of William’s whereabouts until the 11 January 1916, when, as part of the 32nd Battalion, he sailed from Port Adelaide on His Majesty’s Australian Transport H.M.A.T. Borda.
On 9 February 1916 the Battalion disembarked at Suez, and on 9 March the 32nd. Battalion, was allotted to, and joined the 48th Battalion.
On 26 March, William was taken to hospital with influenza but by 30 March he was discharged and returned to his unit at Serapeum. The next day the 48th Battalion left on the H.M.T.Caledonia arriving in Alexandria on 2 June 1916.
Leaving here, they arrived in Marseilles in France on 9 June 1916. In mid 1917, William had three short spells in the field hospital, after which nothing more was recorded until 3 April 1918, when it was stated that William Albert Davies had been wounded in action in the field and taken to hospital with a shattered leg and thigh. On the following day he died of the wounds he had received.
All this information has been researched from copies of official medical documents obtained from the Personnel Records of the First World War, held at the Australian Archives in Canberra.
Reports of individual soldiers’ activities were often made near the battlefields, and so, of necessity, were brief. They were hand written and often in code, so that the movements of soldiers were often not recorded in detail.
William was buried at Warloy-Eaillin Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France. Listed as Private 1704, 48th Battalion, A.I.F., died at the age of 25, son of Joseph and Mary, of Murray Bridge.
William’s grave is listed as “plot 8, row E, grave 24.”
From the War Graves Commission - historical information.
The first British burial took place at the Communal Cemetery in 1915 and the last on 1 July 1916. On that date, Field Ambulances came into the village in readiness for the attack on the German front line, eight kilometres away, and the extension to the Cemetery was begun.
The fighting from July to November 1916, on the north part of the Somme front accounts for the majority of the burials, but a certain number are due to the attack in spring 1918 which reached the former British front line.

A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 - 2004. Written by Wyn Allen (née Weidenhofer) 2004 ©.
Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.

This is a works in progress and any assistance with information or source details would be very much appreciated.

Sources

• Information taken from the Weidenhofer Database compiled from family input and research for the book “A History of the Weidenhofer Families in Australia 1846 – 2004”.
• Reproduced with permission of Stewart Allen, Barry Malcolm and Carlien Melrose.

Further research is required to locate primary documents to satisfy Wikitree source standards.