Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 1941 KIDD William Nimmo             26th Battalion
 
William Kidd was born in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly in 1891. As a boy he attended Indooroopilly State School before his parents, John and Elizabeth Kidd moved to the Nanango district where they took up a farming block which they named “Hazeldean.”
 
William travelled to Brisbane to enlist on 22nd June 1915. He stated he was a 24 year old farmer of Nanango. William presented as a well-built young man, standing almost 6 feet tall and weighing 12 and half stone. He named his mother, Elizabeth Kidd of “Hazeldean,” Nanango as next of kin. William was allocated directly to the 3rd reinforcements of the 26th Battalion, a composite battalion comprising recruits from Queensland and one company of Tasmanians, which was finishing final preparations for overseas service at Fraser’s Hill Camp Enoggera.
 
William and the other 100 or so reinforcements were given rudimentary training and had to complete the compulsory musketry course to a satisfactory standard before being allowed to be posted overseas and join the battalion. On 16th August 1915, the 3rd reinforcements of the 26th battalion boarded the “Kyarra” at Pinkenba Wharf for the voyage to Egypt. Upon arrival at Suez, the reinforcements went into camp at Tel el Kabir on the Suez Canal for further training. The main force of the 26th Battalion as part of the 7th Infantry Brigade landed at Anzac Cove on 11th September 1915 and went into the trenches around Steele’s Post to relieve the units that had been on Gallipoli since April. After the last of the failed attacks by the Anzac Forces in August, the Gallipoli campaign quietened down considerably. There were no more mad dash charges with the bayonet and consequently there were considerably fewer casualties which meant that the reinforcements back in Egypt were not called up until November.
 
The weather at Anzac Cove changed quickly from the dry heat of summer to lashing rain and snow. When William landed at Watson’s Pier at Anzac Cove on 6th November, an early winter was making life in the Australian trenches unbearable. Trenches became flooded and snow and frost affected the men who had no means of sheltering from the elements. On 1st December, William reported to a field ambulance and was evacuated to the 13th Casualty Clearing Station on the island of Lemnos. The initial diagnosis was trench foot but after being transferred to the 21st Australian General Hospital in Cairo, it was determined that William was suffering from severe frostbite. After a week in hospital, William was discharged to a convalescent depot and finally rejoined his battalion, which had been evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, on 5th February 1916.
 
The first three months of 1916 brought about large changes for the Australian Forces. The Light Horse was to remain in Egypt as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The two divisions of the AIF which had seen action at Gallipoli were to be effectively doubled by taking on the large number of reinforcements which had been accumulating during the latter half of 1915. The four battalions of the 7th Brigade however, which included the 26th, were not involved in the doubling exercise and were at full strength and ready to be deployed to the Western Front. On 15th March 1916, William and his mates from the 26th Battalion boarded the “Northland” at Alexandria for the crossing of the Mediterranean. The battalion disembarked at the Marseilles docks on 21st March; one of the first AIF battalions to arrive in France.
 
The Battalion was loaded onto railway wagons for the journey north to Morbecque where they were greeted by snow on the ground. Most of the men were billeted in local farms. April, May and June were spent in rotations in and out of the firing line in the Armentieres sector. Towards the end of their rotations, a few trench raids were executed but there had been no full scale attacks.
 
General Haig, Supreme British commander on the Western Front planned a huge offensive in the south of the British sector through the Somme River valley for the summer of 1916. It was to be the largest battle of the war so far, and was timed to commence on the 1st of July. The attack was a disaster, with the British suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day, many of them conscripts from Kitchener’s New Army. In spite of the losses, Haig was determined to push on and the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions were moved south from the Armentieres sector to Albert to take part in the Somme offensive at Pozieres. 
 
The village of Pozieres half way between Albert and Bapaume, sat on the highest point of that part of the battlefield. Part of Pozieres village was taken by the 1st Division on 26th July. The second division’s objective was to take a blockhouse which had been built on the site of a windmill in the village of Pozieres. The windmill was behind two lines of trenches, and provided a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. The attack, the first major offensive by the 7th Brigade since arriving in France, was to begin just after midnight on the 29th July 1916.
 
The German wire remained un cut and the Australians were forced to withdraw to their billets at Tara Hill where they were reinforced and ordered back into the line on 4th August. The German defenders poured enfilading machine gun fire and high explosive artillery and trench mortars on the attackers. During the attack, William Kidd received a gunshot wound to the back, most probably from a machine gun. The planning for the attack included 16 stretcher bearers for the battalion. Given that a stretcher may require up to four bearers for each casualty, the number of bearers was quite inadequate; as the 26th Battalion War Diary records. William was eventually recovered from the battlefield and taken to the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station on 5th August where he died of his wounds the following day. William was one of the 370 26thBattalion men killed, wounded or missing that day. He was buried in the Puchevillers Military Cemetery with the Reverend Broughton in attendance. William’s mother received a parcel of her son’s belongings which included an identity disc, a wristwatch in a leather cover, a metal matchbox cover, postcards and a religious text. When permanent headstones were being erected in military cemeteries, Elizabeth Kidd chose as an inscription: IN MEMORY OF MY BELOVED SON.
 
 On the site of the Pozieres windmill today is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”

# 1941 KIDD William Nimmo             26th Battalion
 
William Kidd was born in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly in 1891. As a boy he attended Indooroopilly State School before his parents, John and Elizabeth Kidd moved to the Nanango district where they took up a farming block which they named “Hazeldean.”
 
William travelled to Brisbane to enlist on 22nd June 1915. He stated he was a 24 year old farmer of Nanango. William presented as a well-built young man, standing almost 6 feet tall and weighing 12 and half stone. He named his mother, Elizabeth Kidd of “Hazeldean,” Nanango as next of kin. William was allocated directly to the 3rd reinforcements of the 26th Battalion, a composite battalion comprising recruits from Queensland and one company of Tasmanians, which was finishing final preparations for overseas service at Fraser’s Hill Camp Enoggera.
 
William and the other 100 or so reinforcements were given rudimentary training and had to complete the compulsory musketry course to a satisfactory standard before being allowed to be posted overseas and join the battalion. On 16th August 1915, the 3rd reinforcements of the 26th battalion boarded the “Kyarra” at Pinkenba Wharf for the voyage to Egypt. Upon arrival at Suez, the reinforcements went into camp at Tel el Kabir on the Suez Canal for further training. The main force of the 26th Battalion as part of the 7th Infantry Brigade landed at Anzac Cove on 11th September 1915 and went into the trenches around Steele’s Post to relieve the units that had been on Gallipoli since April. After the last of the failed attacks by the Anzac Forces in August, the Gallipoli campaign quietened down considerably. There were no more mad dash charges with the bayonet and consequently there were considerably fewer casualties which meant that the reinforcements back in Egypt were not called up until November.
 
The weather at Anzac Cove changed quickly from the dry heat of summer to lashing rain and snow. When William landed at Watson’s Pier at Anzac Cove on 6th November, an early winter was making life in the Australian trenches unbearable. Trenches became flooded and snow and frost affected the men who had no means of sheltering from the elements. On 1st December, William reported to a field ambulance and was evacuated to the 13th Casualty Clearing Station on the island of Lemnos. The initial diagnosis was trench foot but after being transferred to the 21st Australian General Hospital in Cairo, it was determined that William was suffering from severe frostbite. After a week in hospital, William was discharged to a convalescent depot and finally rejoined his battalion, which had been evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, on 5th February 1916.
 
The first three months of 1916 brought about large changes for the Australian Forces. The Light Horse was to remain in Egypt as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The two divisions of the AIF which had seen action at Gallipoli were to be effectively doubled by taking on the large number of reinforcements which had been accumulating during the latter half of 1915. The four battalions of the 7th Brigade however, which included the 26th, were not involved in the doubling exercise and were at full strength and ready to be deployed to the Western Front. On 15th March 1916, William and his mates from the 26th Battalion boarded the “Northland” at Alexandria for the crossing of the Mediterranean. The battalion disembarked at the Marseilles docks on 21st March; one of the first AIF battalions to arrive in France.
 
The Battalion was loaded onto railway wagons for the journey north to Morbecque where they were greeted by snow on the ground. Most of the men were billeted in local farms. April, May and June were spent in rotations in and out of the firing line in the Armentieres sector. Towards the end of their rotations, a few trench raids were executed but there had been no full scale attacks.
 
General Haig, Supreme British commander on the Western Front planned a huge offensive in the south of the British sector through the Somme River valley for the summer of 1916. It was to be the largest battle of the war so far, and was timed to commence on the 1st of July. The attack was a disaster, with the British suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day, many of them conscripts from Kitchener’s New Army. In spite of the losses, Haig was determined to push on and the 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions were moved south from the Armentieres sector to Albert to take part in the Somme offensive at Pozieres. 
 
The village of Pozieres half way between Albert and Bapaume, sat on the highest point of that part of the battlefield. Part of Pozieres village was taken by the 1st Division on 26th July. The second division’s objective was to take a blockhouse which had been built on the site of a windmill in the village of Pozieres. The windmill was behind two lines of trenches, and provided a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. The attack, the first major offensive by the 7th Brigade since arriving in France, was to begin just after midnight on the 29th July 1916.
 
The German wire remained un cut and the Australians were forced to withdraw to their billets at Tara Hill where they were reinforced and ordered back into the line on 4th August. The German defenders poured enfilading machine gun fire and high explosive artillery and trench mortars on the attackers. During the attack, William Kidd received a gunshot wound to the back, most probably from a machine gun. The planning for the attack included 16 stretcher bearers for the battalion. Given that a stretcher may require up to four bearers for each casualty, the number of bearers was quite inadequate; as the 26th Battalion War Diary records. William was eventually recovered from the battlefield and taken to the 3rd Casualty Clearing Station on 5th August where he died of his wounds the following day. William was one of the 370 26thBattalion men killed, wounded or missing that day. He was buried in the Puchevillers Military Cemetery with the Reverend Broughton in attendance. William’s mother received a parcel of her son’s belongings which included an identity disc, a wristwatch in a leather cover, a metal matchbox cover, postcards and a religious text. When permanent headstones were being erected in military cemeteries, Elizabeth Kidd chose as an inscription: IN MEMORY OF MY BELOVED SON.
 
 On the site of the Pozieres windmill today is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”