Victory Medal : Sergeant W Faint, 10 Battalion, AIF

Victory Medal. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

William Faint was born at Hindmarsh, South Australia, in December 1895. He was employed as an engine cleaner (and served in the Militia with 76 Infantry, the Hindmarsh Battalion) before enlisting in the AIF as a 19 year old private in 10 Battalion, on 19 August 1914. He received the regimental number 355, and embarked with C Company of the battalion on the transport A11 'Ascanius' in October of the same year. Faint served throughout the Gallipoli campaign, during which he was twice wounded, (in May and August 1915) and travelled with 10 Battalion to the Western Front in 1916. In March of that year, he was promoted to corporal, and in October, after the fighting at Pozières, to sergeant. He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry at Merris, France, on 23 July 1918, and a Bar to the award for further acts of courage and leadership in the same area later in the month. These two actions took place during the period of so-called 'peaceful penetration', when the AIF was isolating and capturing many German positions without major attacks, through patrol or company sized operations, a role in which Faint excelled. In the major Allied offensive of August 1918, 10 Battalion was committed to the capture of Lihons, south of the Somme, and during this battle, on 11 August, Sergeant William Faint was killed in action. His body was never recovered, and his name is recorded amongst the missing on the Australian Memorial at Villers Bretonneux, France. Faint's brother Frank also served in 10 Battalion, with the regimental number 92A, but survived the war.