The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (753) Lance Corporal William Williams, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, First 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 , the story for this day was on (753) Lance Corporal William Williams, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, First World War.

753 Lance Corporal William Williams, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment
KIA 19 April 1917


Today we remember and pay tribute to Lance Corporal William Williams.

William Williams was born on 3 June 1888 in Warracknabeal, Victoria. Known as “Bill”, he was one of ten children born to local iron moulder William Williams Senior and his wife Clara. William received his education at the local state school before gaining employment as a labourer in the region. On 15 May 1912, he married Charlotte Nioa. The couple welcomed their first child, Alice, in November the following year.

When war broke out in August 1914, Williams was among the first in his local region to enlist, joining the Australian Imperial Force on 23 November 1914. He was assigned to reinforcements of the 8th Light Horse Regiment and began a short period of training in Australia. He embarked for active service from Melbourne in February the following year, travelling on board the troopship Pera.

Trooper Williams arrived in Egypt in March 1915 and continued training with his unit. As light horse regiments were initially considered unsuitable for operations on Gallipoli, Williams did not reach the peninsula until June, when he and his comrades were deployed without their horses. On Gallipoli, Williams’ unit was attached to the New Zealand and Australian Division and spent the first months of trench life defending and establishing the Anzac front line. In August 1915, Williams’ unit was involved in the Light Horse’s disastrous attack on the Nek, suffering more than 230 casualties.

With the failure of the allied August offensive, the stalemate on the Gallipoli peninsula remained unbroken and the 8th Light Horse continued acting in a defensive capacity. In October, Williams was evacuated after an accident with a bomb gun left him with a minor wound to his right hand. After receiving treatment in Malta, he was sent to England to recover. In November 1915, his wife gave birth to their second child, a son named Leonard Alfred.

In December 1915, while Williams was still in hospital, the British abandoned the Gallipoli campaign and began evacuating units from the peninsula. When Williams returned to his unit in June of 1916, he joined his comrades in Egypt where they had become part of the newly-formed Anzac Mounted Division.

Williams and his unit were involved in driving Turkish forces back across the desert after the battle of Romani in August. The enemy’s retreat halted on the Palestine frontier in December, with the Turks having developed strongholds at Magdhaba and Rafa. Williams’ unit helped capture the village of Magdhaba on 23 December. Success at Rafa in early January 1917 allowed allied forces to push through into Palestine, expelling the Turks from the Sinai.

After being promoted to lance corporal in January, Williams’ next clash with the enemy came during the second attempt to capture the Turkish stronghold of Gaza in April 1917. An earlier attack on the city had failed after attacking infantry and mounted troops were ordered to withdraw while on the cusp of victory. By the time Williams and his comrades advanced on the city three weeks later, the Turks had enhanced and extended their defences, making this attempt at capturing Gaza even more difficult than the first.

Their frontal assault on Gaza was supported by tanks, artillery, armoured cars and gas shells, most of which proved useless on the battlefield. British infantry units attacked the city directly, while mounted units attacked to the east.

As Williams’ unit reached the Turkish redoubts on the right flank, they came under heavy fire from machine-gun positions. Armoured cars only served to draw further fire on the advancing troops, causing multiple casualties. By the end of the day, having made no significant gains, allied units were forced to withdraw, suffering six and a half thousand casualties. Among the dead was Lance Corporal Williams, whose body could not be recovered from the battlefield.

His family later paid tribute to him in a memorial notice placed in Melbourne’s Argus newspaper:

“His sun had set while it was yet day. Our brave Anzac hero.”

Lance Corporal William Williams was 28 years old.

His name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among almost 62,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Lance Corporal William Williams, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Meghan Adams
Researcher, Military History Section