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War Memorial Hall  c1929

Memorial Hall circa 1929
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William Angus KIRKLAND

KIRKLAND

William Kirkland was born on 11 November 1893 in Ballarat, Victoria. His parents were William and Margaret (née Scott) Kirkland. He attended Scotch from 1908 to 1913.

William was an accountant when he enlisted on 17 August 1914 at Prahran. He served in the 5th Battalion with the rank of Sergeant. His Regimental Number was 572.

William died on 20 September 1917 at Ypres, Belgium, though some records say erroneously that he died in France. He was 23 years of age.

Service record

William enlisted on the same day and at the same place as Reg Brownell, Keith McIlwraith and Percy Warren, and like them was initially in the Public Schools company of the 5th Battalion. He attended the Grand Hotel function in Melbourne for Old Scotch Collegians before the departure of the first contingent in October 1914.

He was at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April. Unlike Brownell, McIlwraith and Warren he survived that ordeal, but some time between 8 and 12 May he received a gunshot wound –characterised as ‘light’ - to the shoulder, and was evacuated to Malta and then Egypt. He was back with his battalion on Gallipoli on 11 July, got through the fighting at Lone Pine, and in early September was promoted to Lance Corporal. He fell ill later that month. The illness was initially diagnosed as dysentery, but as he travelled to Lemnos, then Malta and then finally England the diagnosis changed to enteric fever. He reached England on 12 November 1915.

More than 3 months later he entered the Australian and New Zealand base at Weymouth, but it was not until 30 July 1916, ten months after he left the 5th Battalion at Gallipoli, that he rejoined the unit in France. He wrote ‘I was glad to join the old 5th Batt. again’. At that time the battalion had just participated in the capture of Pozieres, where in his words ‘they had been a bit cut up’. He was with them as they went through for a second ‘tour of duty’, as he put it. He was there for two weeks and he called it a ‘hot shop’, including as it did incessant shelling from both sides. After a rest at Chateau Belge, a former royal castle, they took over part of the trenches near Hill 60. One night when shells of every calibre were firing he considered it a ‘magnificent’ pyrotechnical display. He described a three-hour journey crossing just one and a half miles to the notoriously muddy Gueudecourt. In places they were waist-deep in slush, in others they got bogged in sticky mud. When they came under fire from artillery shells, ‘All that befell us was a shower of mud, muck and rubbish, which fell with a rattling noise on our tin hats. It is no use ducking or running when one hears the weird roar of a coming shell. The best thing to do is to stand perfectly still, and keep an eye open for any big bits which can be dodged.’ He was promoted to Corporal on 4 August 1916.

William was listed ‘wounded in action’ on 4 November that year when he was admitted to a Field Ambulance with a diagnosis of ‘Shell shock & bruised’. His own account, which rings entirely true, says: ‘I had been only two days in the line when I received my knock. I had a very painful trip away from the line. The road was torn up by shells and the heavy traffic in adverse weather, so that when the ambulance landed in a hole 3 or 4ft. deep, the sensations produced were not pleasant to a wounded man, especially one suffering from concussion of the neck and head. I reached hospital in England exactly a fortnight after being strafed out. What a contrast the clean sheets were to the mud of the Somme. My constitution stood me in good stead amidst the enteric, heat and flies at Gallipoli, and the mud, rain, and cold of France.’

Not surprisingly, his obituary in The Scotch Collegian does not mention the shell shock, stating instead and presumably on the basis of false information, that he was ‘severely wounded at the battle of Bapaume’. He was sent to a hospital at Rouen and then via Le Havre to England, where he was hospitalised on 18 November (see below). Recovery would not be easy. In early January 1917 he was transferred to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital at Plymouth, which apparently specialised in ‘Shell Shock’. He received a furlough from there 16 days later, and afterwards entered a camp at Perham Downs and was classified B1A. He entered an Infantry Draft Depot on 9 February but, rather than being sent straight back to the front, was attached to the Army Pay Corps in London. He stayed there until early May, when he went to the Command School of Instruction at Candahar Barracks, Tidworth.

By 3 June he was heading for France again. He rejoined the 5th Battalion in France on 21 June 1917. In August he became a Temporary Sergeant, and was promoted Sergeant on 11 September. By then he had just days to live. He was wounded on 20 September 1917, when his legs were fractured by a shell. He died of wounds later that day at the 17th Casualty Clearing Station. One source in his service record says he died of his leg wounds, another of head wounds.

A captain in D Company of the 5th Battalion said of William: "He gave his life ungrudgingly in a great cause. His work was always of a very high order, and in losing him I have lost a valuable non-commissioned officer." Chaplain C. Neville wrote of Will: "He was highly respected by the officers, and beloved by the men of his company. I saw him for a few minutes after he was wounded, but he was too badly hurt to speak, and he had then come back from the line some distance. He had shell wounds in both legs and about the body. He died without any pain. He was buried at Lijssenhoek Military Cemetery. I had a very high opinion of your son's capabilities as a soldier and of his fine qualities of manhood. His memory will live in the battalion for many a day.'

A Sergeant of the 5th Battalion said: "Will and I have been in the same company since the beginning, and after his promotion to sergeant, were mates - something that implies a lot to Australians. When we went over the top I did not see anything of him till we had almost reached our objective; then I saw him leading his platoon, his platoon officer having been wounded. The company advanced past their objective, and were consolidating when a heavy barrage fire came down on us, and we had to withdraw. A shell burst under the feet of the party in which Will was, and threw him about 20 yards. I saw he was badly hurt, but I could not stop to do anything for him, as the majority of the N.C.O.'s were casualties by this time, and I had to help direct the men. A few minutes later I saw the stretcher-bearers taking him out. I spoke to him, and he was quite cheerful, and joked about having got another 'Blighty.' I afterwards learned the sad news of his death. He died a hero's death, fighting for his country and leading his men.’

William Kirkland is buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery (Plot XXIII, Row D, Grave No. 12A), Belgium.

Photographs and Documents:

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William Kirkland is fourth from left in back row in this photograph of ‘Scotchies’ at Mena Camp, Egypt on 23 March 1915.

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A studio portrait of William Kirkland. His warm uniform suggests it was taken in England or France.

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William Kirkland’s journey from battlefield to England with ‘shell shock’ is listed in this extract from his service record. It was the second of his three wounds, the third of which would prove fatal.

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Kirkland’s headstone at Lijssenthoek has the epitaph: ‘VICTORY IS WHAT THEY REAP/HIS WARFARE DONE/HE LIVES WITH GOD ABOVE’

Sources:

  1. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour
  2. Lijssenthoek War Cemetery website: http://www.lijssenthoek.be/en/address/8781/-william-angus-kirkland.html
  3. Mishura Scotch Database
  4. National Archives of Australia – B2455, KIRKLAND WILLIAM ANGUS
  5. Scotch Collegian 1915 and 1917
  6. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=166610

Page last updated: 11 November 2015