Informal portrait of 2608 Lance Corporal (LCpl) William (Jessie) Hilder Gregson, 7th Field ...

Informal portrait of 2608 Lance Corporal (LCpl) William (Jessie) Hilder Gregson, 7th Field Company Engineers, of Sydney, NSW. A surveyor for three years before enlisting in August 1915, LCpl Gregson left Australia for Egypt in December 1915. On arrival in Alexandria, he was sent to France for service on the Western Front . Two weeks after he was promoted to Sergeant (Sgt) in June 1916, Gregson was hospitalised for chest injuries sustained by a German shell, and rejoined his unit in Belgium in September 1916. Sgt Gregson took part in an attack on German positions at Flers on 14 November 1916 when he and another man were wounded by a German machine-gun bullet. The two men were placed in a shell-hole by a party of engineers who notified nearby stretcher-bearers and continued on with the attack. Although the other man was taken to a dressing-station, Sgt Gregson could not be found. Exhaustive attempts were made by the Red Cross and Gregson's family to determine his whereabouts, but it was thought that the shell hole was later swept by enemy artillery. Sgt Gregson was later listed as killed in action, age 39.