Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Harold Armitstead # 2554 9th Battalion

William Armitstead was born in Victoria in 1880. Sometime before 1899 he had moved north to Queensland or perhaps Murwillumbah when he enlisted in the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushman Battalion for the Boer War serving as a private. After service in South Africa he married and was living with his wife, Elsie May at “Ben Hilton”, Cleveland Street Coorparoo. At the time of his enlistment for the Great War on 17 July 1915, he was 35 years old and gave his occupation as carpenter.
William was drafted into the 6th reinforcements of the 25th Battalion. The 25th Battalion had been raised at Enoggera earlier that year as part of the second division of the AIF. The original 25th, comprised almost exclusively of Queenslanders, had sailed from Brisbane only one month beforehand and would be on the Gallipoli Peninsula by August 1915.

William departed Brisbane on the 21 October 1915 on the HMAT “Seang Bee” and disembarked in Suez in February 1916 where he was admitted to hospital in Cairo with ingrown toenails, in all probability due to the boots he was issued being too small. By the time of his discharge on 10 March, the reinforced 25th Battalion had already left Egypt for Marseilles so William was transferred to another Queensland Battalion, the 9th. After being evacuated from Gallipoli, the 9th Battalion had been split with half of the strength forming the nucleus of a new battalion, the 49th and so new reinforcements, including William now filled out the 9th Battalion. In any event, the 9th, the 25th, and the 49th were all nominally Queensland Battalions, sharing a black over blue colour patch; only the shape of the patch varied. The 9th arrived in Marseilles on 3rd April 1916.

The normal practice by the British Command was, after a period of training, to place the newly arrived Australian Divisions into the quietest sector of the western front around Armentieres near the Belgian border. On the 1st April 1916, Haig launched his big push along the valley of the Somme, with the objective being the capture of Bapaume. This was the opening of the Battle of the Somme. Very few gains were made along the 60-mile front of the advance and British casualties amounted to almost 60,000 on the first day.

A major obstacle to the advance along the Albert – Bapaume Road was the high ground of a ridge which ran from above the village of Pozieres through Mouquet Farm and on to Thiepval. The entire line was heavily fortified with blockhouses and three trench lines. In an attempt to breach the defence Haig brought three of the four Australian Divisions in France to the Somme for the attack on Pozieres. The 1st Division, of which the 9th Battalion was a part, was concentrated around Vignacourt, some 40 kilometres from the front, in order to prepare for what would be their first major operation in France. Gough, the commander of the sector, ordered the first division to attack Pozieres at 12.30am on the 23rd July.

During the offensive of 23rd July, William Armitstead received a severe gunshot wound, probably from a machine gun. Remarkably, he was transferred to the Number 8 Red Cross Hospital at Etaples over 130 kilometres away within 24 hours, which given that the battle for Pozieres was still raging and communications would have been stretched is a considerable achievement. As per normal practice, his wife was informed by telegram that William was severely wounded. In spite of the medical attention provided to him, William finally succumbed to his wounds and died at Etaples on 17 August 1916. He was buried at the Etaples Military Cemetery.

On the site of a ruined windmill which had comprised the major defensive position above the village of Pozieres there 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.”

It is evident from a number of letters held in the National Archives that William’s wife Elsie struggled financially after his death. She had contacted the Queensland Patriotic Fund for financial assistance, had requested the PAFS Lodge at Murwillumbah pay a funeral allowance, and had written to Base Records enquiring about William’s deferred pay; all in the latter half of 1916. It can be assumed that she was also in receipt of a war widow’s pension. By the time that personal effects of deceased servicemen were being returned to Australia, Elsie had moved to Taylor Street, Woolloongabba. Among the returned items sent to Elsie were her husband’s Boer War Medals. When service medals were issued to Next of Kin, Elsie had remarried (now Mrs Casserley) and was living at Logan Rd, Stones Corner.