William Henry BACON

William Henry BACON Update Details

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BACON, William Henry

Service Number:	3687
Enlisted:	24 July 1915
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	4th Infantry Battalion
Born:	Nundle, New South Wales, Australia, 1882
Home Town:	Attunga, Tamworth Municipality, New South Wales
Schooling:	Not yet discovered
Occupation:	Labourer
Died:	Killed in Action, Pozieres, France, 22 July 1916
Cemetery:	No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Tamworth ANZAC Park Memorial Gates, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France)

World War 1 Service

24 Jul 1915:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 3687, 4th Infantry Battalion
30 Dec 1915:	Involvement Private, 3687, 4th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '8' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Medic embarkation_ship_number: A7 public_note: ''
30 Dec 1915:	Embarked Private, 3687, 4th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Medic, Sydney

Help us honour William Henry Bacon's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Stephen Brooks

Bill Bacon enlisted on 24 July 1915 and was killed in action on the 25th July 1916 during the Battle of Pozieres, aged 33 years. His remains, although buried in close proximity to Pozieres, were not found and he was listed on the Australian National Memorial to the missing at Villers-Bretonneux Cemetery.

During exhumation work in 1936, the body of an unknown Australian soldier was recovered from a spot on the Northern outskirts of Pozieres. The only form of identification left at the time was his uniform and a small silver match box cover engraved with the initials “W.H.B.” (Pg 17 Service Record: letter dated 21 September 1936. The file does not contain a response.)

The father was informed and asked if he had any knowledge of his son owning the memento however no reply was received from the family. The mother Mary Ann Bacon had passed away during 1935 and the father, Thomas Bacon was 85 at the time. It would appear that no definitive identification was made.

Bill Bacon’s older bother, 3236 Private Walter John Bacon 53rd Battalion AIF, had been killed in action only days earlier at Fromelles on the 19th July 1916.

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