Substitute Soap : Private G T Williams, 48 Battalion AIF

Rectangular bar of soap stamped on one side with a circle and 'KASEIFE'

This soap was issued to 3797 Private Gordon Thomas Williams while a prisoner of war in Germany. The soap did not lather but removed dirt in a similar fashion to a piece of clay. Williams used this soap until Red Cross parcels containing actual soap began to arrive in the camps.

Williams was born in Encounter Bay, South Australia on 21 July 1888 and was working as a bank clerk on enlistment in the AIF on 1 September 1915. He embarked for Egypt aboard HMAT Ajana on 17 December as a member of 12 Infantry Battalion 12 Reinforcements but was taken on strength by 48 Battalion on 29 April and proceeded to France. He disembarked at Marseille on 9 June but was admitted to No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station on 12 June with severe tonsillitis. He was transferred to hospital in France, then England aboard the Hospital Ship St Patrick. Williams was discharged from hospital to a training battalion on 23 July. Fields rejoined his unit overseas on 30 September.

In the early hours of 11 April 1917, during the First Battle of Bullecourt, 48 Battalion was ordered to advance across No Man's Land in an attempt to capture the second trench of the Hindenburg Line. Williams was in the third wave, attached to a Lewis Gun Section. He advanced halfway towards the first trench when he was wounded in his right leg by a shell splinter, leaving him temporarily disabled. Eventually Williams was able to hobble to the first trench (now held by 46 Battalion) through to the wire entanglement at the second line. Unable to walk any further Williams took shelter in a shell hole with a number of other wounded Australians.

Later that afternoon the men noticed that there were Germans in the trench behind them, effectively cutting them off from returning to their battalions. They decided to wait until dark before attempting to escape. However the Germans noticed them in the shell hole and called to them to surrender. They complied and Williams was taken along a trench into Reincourt, and then marched behind the lines. Next morning he was marched to Ecourt. There he was entrained to Solesmes where he remained for one night. The wounded were separated from the unwounded prisoners with the former taken to a railway station, where they were put on an ambulance train and shipped to Germany.

Williams was taken to Munster, arriving there on 16 April. He was given a bath, had his wound dressed for the first time and was put into a ward. William's wound was dressed every third day; however the food was very poor consisting only of a meatless soup. Soon Williams began to run a temperature and later developed pleurisy. He began to improve in July when Red Cross Parcels began to arrive. The parcels came in regularly and the prisoners received them intact.

In August Williams was examined by the Chief Medical Officer and recommended for internment on account of the former's lungs. Williams remained at Munster for six months before he was sent to Soltau Prisoner of War camp, where he worked unloading wagons and digging land. In early December Williams was transferred to Manheim where he went before the Swiss Medical Board. He was passed by the board for repatriation to England and sent to Laysin in Switzerland, arriving there on 28 December. He lodged at The Hotel Mont Blanc until 1 June 1918 when he was sent to The Hotel Beau Sejour in the Chateau d' O'ex Region. He left there on 11 June via France for England arriving there on 14 June.

In London Williams was admitted to The King George Hospital, Waterloo suffering a gunshot wound to his right leg and severe tuberculosis. He was transferred to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford on 25 June before being discharged to No. 2 Convalescence Depot, Weymouth on 8 August. Williams returned to Australia aboard HMAT Runic, disembarking on 26 November 1918. Williams was discharged from the AIF on 24 February 1919.