The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (QX16911) Private William Lewis Williams, 9th Infantry Special Group, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Stuart Baines, the story for this day was on (QX16911) Private William Lewis Williams, 9th Infantry Special Group, Second World War.

QX16911 Private William Lewis Williams, 9th Infantry Special Group
DOD 3 January 1941
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 25 August 2014

Today we remember Private William Lewis Williams, who died of illness in 1942 while on overseas service.

William Lewis Williams was born on 12 December 1915 in Warwick, in the Southern Downs region of Queensland. Known as “Lewis”, his parents were George and Gertrude Williams. The Williams family owned a farm in the Freestone district as well as the machinery business G.E. Williams and Co. in Warwick.

Lewis Williams attended the small Freestone State School and later the Warwick State High School. A local history of the men from the Warwick district who have died in war described Williams as having a “studious nature”; one who, even as a teen, “acquired a fine personal library”. He left school at the end of 1931 when he was 16 years old and worked on the family farm.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War Williams soldiered part-time with the Militia’s 25th Battalion, based in Toowoomba. Pre-war, this battalion had the regimental title “Darling Downs Regiment” but its members were more colloquially known as the “Mountain Men”. While in Toowoomba, Williams enlisted in the volunteer Australian Imperial Force in March 1941. On his enlistment he described his occupation as a “tractor driver” but his family later listed his occupation as a “farmer”.

After training in Australia for six months he was allocated to the reinforcements for the 9th Division’s 2/15th Battalion. A Queensland-raised battalion, during 1941 the 2/15th Battalion had suffered heavy casualties fighting in Libya, most notably during the siege of Tobruk. In mid-September Williams left Australia for the Middle East. Arriving in Palestine, he was sent to the 20th Infantry Training Battalion. This was a training unit for reinforcements and men returning to the 2/15th Battalion and other battalions of the 20th Brigade.

Williams, however, would never join the battalion. In late 1941 he was admitted to the 2/1st Australian General Hospital in Gaza. Initially he was diagnosed with anaemia but this was subsequently changed to leukaemia. He died very soon afterwards on 3 January 1942. He was 26 years old.

Private Williams was buried in the Gaza War Cemetery in modern day Israel. He is one of 259 Australians buried in the cemetery from both world wars.

William Lewis Williams is also commemorated here, on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with some 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War.

There is no photograph in the Memorial’s collection to display beside the Pool of Reflection.

We now remember his service and all of those Australians, and those of our Allies, who have given their lives in the service of our nation.