William (Bill) Hastie Waugh was born in 1886 in Fitzroy, Victoria to parents George Andrew Hastie Waugh (1861-1919) and Minnie Pierce (1866-1954) He was one of four children but only one other than him lived beyond childhood. The family moved to Perth around 1898. He married Edith May Sinclair (1890-1962) in 1911.

In 1914 he was living at 9 Ebsworth St with his wife while his parents and sibling were living at 11 Nash St, Perth. Bill and Edith had one daughter, Phyllis May, born in 1913, but she sadly died at the age of 16 in 1929, followed by the death of her father Bill in 1930.

William enlisted in August 1914 in the 11th Battalion Infantry. He had been employed as a clerk. He left Australia on the HMT ship Suffolk to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in Gallipoli arriving mid 1915. He rapidly was promoted from Private to Sergeant in December 1915.

In January 1916 he returned to Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Forces to go to France. but his health suffered and he was hospitalised first with the MEF with asthenia , then in France suffered from scabies and debility.

He was sent back to Australia for a change with dysentery and debility and was discharged in June 1918.

According to his Army Repatriation file, he spent the next 10 years unwell and in and out of hospital, suffering ongoing health issues, receiving a part pension. In 1927 his diagnosis was dysentery, dilated heart, bronchitis and gastric ulcer. His cause of death was due to gastric ulcers, secondary anemia and cardiac arrest.

He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery .

David Ivan Cowan was born in Colac, Victoria on the 23rd January 1889 to parents Matthew Cowan (1845-1923) and Frances Simpson (1857-1895). He was one of nine siblings, with one brother Hugh Gilroy who also served in WWI.

He enlisted on the 15th February 1915 at the age of 24. He was employed as a Saddler. He married Violet Walker (1891-1973) in 1915, and she moved to Ebsworth St where his mother Frances Cowan lived. This was possibly a rental property as the family is not listed at this address in Wise Directories.

David left Australia in May 1915 and was transferred to the 2nd Signalling Division. He left to join the British Expeditionary Forces in France. He was admitted to hospital in October 1916 with pneumonia.

He re-joined his unit in France, but on the 8th June 1918, the French Authorities ‘congratulated him for gallantry in attempting to save from drowning a man who had got into mild difficulties ‘.

In January 1919 he was recommended to return to Australia and returned on the ‘Ancheses’ and discharged on the 10th June 1919.

On return he and his wife moved to Adelaide Terrace, Perth where he continued his trade as a Saddler. He moved around the Perth area, Beaufort St and Stirling Street.

He died on the 21st July 1954 from ‘self-administered poisoning while mentally depressed due to continual illnesses’ due to stomach pain and cancer of the stomach. His wife told the Coroners Court that he had had stomach pains for 10 years but did not know he had stomach cancer.

Hugh Gilroy Cowan was born in 1884 in Healesville , Victoria to parents Matthew Cowan (1845-1923) and Frances Simpson (1857-1895). He was one of nine siblings, with one brother David Ivan who also served in WWI. He enlisted in Perth in March 1915 at the age of nearly 31, he was employed as a Plumber and in the attestation form is listed as being at 14 Ebsworth St.

Hugh left Australia in May 1916 on the HMAT Surada with the 10th Light Horse Brigade. In November 1916 he joined the Imperial Camel Corps. His Army record records a lot of times spent in hospital with recurrent illnesses. He returned to Australia on the H7 Plassey to Fremantle in September 1919.

Hugh had a variety of trades after he returned form war, ranging from labourer, butcher and truck driver to name a few.

He married Violet May Stone (1905-1957) in 1938. She had been previously married to Frederick Rowcroft (1901-1963) in 1926, but they separated, and she married again.

Hugh and friends were often caught illegally running street betting or betting from various premises. He appeared in the Courts and was fined but continued from 1936 to 1950’s.

Hugh died on August 4th 1960.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.

William Charles Sweet was born on the 22nd March 1886 to parents William Henry Sweet (1843-1892) and Elizabeth Ivey (1845-1902) in Kadina, South Australia. He was one of 10 siblings.

He moved to Perth and married Eleanor Martha Wray (1884-) in 1909 who had lived with her family at 18 Ebsworth St. They had three children born before the war and one after. In 1913 they were living at 5 Gardiner St, Mount Lawley.

William enlisted on the 6th April 1916 at the age of 30 with the A Company 2nd Depot. He left Australia in August, disembarking in Plymouth 2 months later. At the end of February 1917, he headed to France with the 5th Pioneer Battalion.

He was discharged in December 1919 and returned to Australia on the ‘Port Melbourne’. In 1920 they were living again in Gardiner St, later moving out of the area.

William died on the 4th July 1958 and was cremated at the Karrakatta Cemetery with his ashes scattered to the winds at Karrakatta.

Sister Ernestine Wray was born on the 10th October 1881 in Albany, Western Australia to parents John Wray (1847-1917) and Sarah Ann Ashbolt (1851-1927). She was one of 14 siblings including her sister Eleanor who married WWI soldier William Charles Sweet. Ernestine trained as a nurse at Kalgoorlie and Geraldton, and from 1907 she was Matron at Grosvenor Hospital in Fremantle. In May 1915 she joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve in July 1915 at Sutton Veny, England.

Ernestine left for France in July 1916, working at the 10th Stationary Hospital, 5th Ambulance Flotilla and the 29th Casualty Clearing station in France before returning to England to work in the 8th Stationary Hospital and the 72nd General Hospital. Shortly after her transfer, she was admitted to this hospital in February 1918 with influenza. She returned to work in July. In January 1919 she was admitted to the same hospital with Hammer Toe. She resigned from duty the same month and returned to Australia in May 1919.

In 1921 she married Joseph George Jeffrey and they lived at 163 Adelaide Terrace for a while, and they had one son.

Ernestine was also a writer of stories for the newspaper both before and after the war. She won the ‘My Most Memorable Experience’ competition in 1933, run in ‘A Digger’s Diary’ column in the Western Mail.

In 1930’s they moved to 35 Park Rd, Mount Lawley where they lived until her death on the 14th December 1958. She was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

She is listed on a memorial board in in Albany.

Photo courtesy of VWMA

Private Edwin William Elder was born on the 5th August 1888 in Norwood, South Australia to parents Edward Joseph (1848-1893) and Caroline Frances Ann Owen (1855-1934). He was fifth of seven siblings: Mary May (1879), Adelaide (1881), Edward James (1883), Margaret (1885), Adrian Francis (1890) and Alfred Vernon (1893-1960) who also enlisted.

Edwin enlisted with the 44th Battalion in February 1916. He had been working as a mechanic. He left Fremantle on the Suevic in June 1916 and in November the same year proceeded to France. From December to March 1917, he was in hospitals on various occasion suffering from mumps, anemia and varicocele.

After he re-joined his unit around April, he was wounded in action in June 1917 with a gunshot wound to his right toe and admitted to the field hospital at Rouen.

On the 4th July 1918, he suffered another gunshot wound, this time to his face which was severe. He was sent to England to hospital in Dartford, then moved to a Repatriation Depot.

He returned to Australia in December 1918. By his time his mother had moved to 27 Almondbury Rd, Mount Lawley and then to 53 Farnley St where he lived with his sister Adelaide after his mother died. He was still there in 1938 but moved soon after.

He did not marry.

He died 17th July 1956 (aged 66–67). He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

Private Alfred Vernon Elder was born on the 18th June 1893 in Norwood, South Australia to parents Edward Joseph (1848-1893) and Caroline Frances Ann Owen (1855-1934). He was the youngest of seven siblings: Mary May (1879), Adelaide (1881), Edward James (1883), Margaret (1885), Edwin William (1888) and Adrian Francis (1890).

Alfred enlisted in August 1914 at Blackboy Hill although his mother’s address was given at being at Barrabup, he had been living with her at previous addresses. He had been working as an Engine Driver at the Western Australian Government Railways.

He left Fremantle in October 1914 with the 11th Infantry and joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 2nd March 1915 to Gallipoli. In June he was sent to hospital with diarrhea followed a month later with dysentery, both hospitals in Egypt. He left Alexandria to return to his Infantry in Gallipoli on the 6th August 1915. A couple of weeks later he was admitted to the 1st Field Ambulance with septic hands and debility and transferred to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, then transferred to Malta in September 1915, and admitted to Military Hospital, Valetta with gastritis. He was invalided to England on the 26th September 1915 and returned to Australia from Portland on board HT ‘Ascanius’, March 1916 with bomb concussion and was pensioned off and discharged in Perth July 1916.

He re-enlisted in March 1917 with the 5th Railway Section but only served until August and did not serve overseas.

He returned to 26 Ebsworth and then moved with his mother to 27 Almondbury Rd and then to 53 Farnley St Mount Lawley.

He became an Engineer and in 1926 he married Violet Ellen Gladys Mahlberg (1905-1995). They had two children.

Alfred Vernon Elder died on the 13th Aril 1960. He is buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

Photo courtesy of Find A Grave.

Corporal Alfred Stewart Bennett was born on the 26th January 1897 in Kerang, Victoria to parents Alexander Kier Bennett (1869-1945) and Hannah Martha Watson (1871-1921). He was one of two siblings.

He enlisted in March 1916 with the 44th Australian Battalion when he was employed as a soft goods manufacturer. He left Australia on the A29 Suevic the 16th June to England. In October 1916 he was promoted to Corporal. In February 1917 he was court martialed and held for trial for neglecting to obey a Battalion order. He was found guilty but in May 1917 he was promoted back to Corporal.

He was later returned to England as Corporal on Command at the School of Instruction at Boyton in June 1918, and he returned to Australia January 1919 and was discharged in April.

In 1923 he married Violet De Gruchy (1896-1991) and their first son Richard was born in 1924. By now the family was living in Leederville. They went on to have three more children.

Alfred also enlisted in WWII, the Army Citizen Military Forces W29313.

His son Richard Stewart also enlisted with the Royal Australia Air Force as a Flying Officer. He died on the 21st March 1945 and is buried in the Berlin Brandenburg war cemetery.

Alfred died on 28th December 1965 at the age of 68 at Hollywood Perth. He was cremated at Karrakatta Cemetery and his ashes scattered over the garden.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry. Alfred, Violet and son Richard c 1939

Private Francis Gartrell James was born on the 23rd December 1881 near the town of Millicent in South Australia to parents Hugh James (1853-1937) and Ellen May Gartrell (1860-1934). Francis was the second eldest of six siblings.

In 1907 he was working in Hay St, Perth as a draper

Francis enlisted on the 30th August 1915 with the 12th Reinforcements, 11th Battalion. He had been working as an Accountant. In March 1916 he joined C Company and left Australia to join the British Expeditionary Forces. He was wounded in France in July 1916 with a gunshot wound to his hand. He was admitted to the clearing station, then to the 16th General Hospital in Le Treport, France and then to the rehabilitation depot in August 1916. He re-joined his Battalion but went missing in France in April 1917. He was later reported not missing but wounded in action with a bayonet wound to the left thigh. He was transferred to hospital in Southall England in the beginning May 1917. His left foot was amputated.

He was returned to Australia on the HS Karoola. His personal effects arrived, sent to his mother nearly seven months later.

On return he worked as a Barber on the 235 Mile Depot, Trans-Australian Railway near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

In October 1920 he married Frances Anne Buchan Brackenridge (1883-1957) in Sydney, New South Wales. They lived in North Ryde where Francis worked as a Market Gardener.

He died on the 16h of June 1944 and was buried at the Waverley Cemetery New South Wales.

Private Frederick Thomas was born on the 3rd March 1897 in Broome, West Australia to parents Herbert Frederick Hearle Thomas (1865 – 1920) and Emma Eliza Goodwyn Burchell (1872 – 1954). He was one of eight siblings. His father was a Police Sergeant in Geraldton at the time of the Great War. Two of Frederick’s brothers served in WWI: Herbert Thomas SN 986 of Geraldton and Charles Thomas SN 1422.

Frederick joined the D Company, 28th Battalion, 7th Brigade. He left Australia to join the British Expeditionary Force in France in September 1915.

On the 28th or 29th July 1916 he was killed in action in the field.

He has no known grave. – “Known into God”,

His personal effects were sent to his father in Geraldton, but after 1920 when Herbert Snr died, further correspondence was sent to Frederick’s mother at 29 Ebsworth St, Mount Lawley. This included a letter to her from the AIF stating that ‘no burial report had been received in respect to her son’.

There are many memorials to him listed on Virtual War Museum of Australia.

Photo courtesy VWMA

Keith Murray was born on the 28th January 1892 to parents Harold Aubrey Mutton (1866-1928) and Ellen Nellie Watts (1867-1958) There were two boys and one girl born to Harold and Nellie. Nellie divorced Harold in 1897 on grounds of desertion, adultery and cruelty. Nellie remarried Matthew Henry Murray in 1898 and they had three girls.

Keith was the second eldest in the family. His elder brother Edward Aubrey Mutton Murray (1891-1917) also served in WWI. Lieutenant Murray was severely wounded 12th October 1917 at Passchendaele and was being carried out by stretcher bearers when a shell burst amongst the party, killing Lieutenant Murray instantly. There was no record of burial.

Keith had enlisted on the 18th September 1918. He was a Divinity student. He was married and he and his wife Dorothy Owen Fox (1892-1975) lived in Merredin, before moving to Perth to Ebsworth St. They had a son Keith Owen Murray (1917-2010).

Keith joined the 11th Battalion, leaving Fremantle on the HMAT A30 Borda in June 1917. In England he attended the 3rd Training Brigade at Durrington, then on command at the 1st Training Brigade Signal School.

He went overseas to France and into the field with the 11th Battalion in June 1918.

On the 18th September 1918 he was wounded in action and died of his wounds the same day.

He was buried at Hesbecourt, the Somme, France.

In 1921, the Murrays moved to Puntie St, Maylands. Dorothy moved with son Keith Owen to Guildford. Keith Owen served in the Royal Australian Airforce in WWII SN 29621.

Photo courtesy on Ancestry.

Robert Hamilton Reed was born in Fremantle on the 2nd January 1899 to parents Harry William Reed (1861-1942) and Allison Cleland Hamilton (1868-1936). He had three sisters and one brother.

Robert was working as a clerk and living with his family.

Private Robert Hamilton enlisted at the age of 18 on the 15th January 1917 with the 51st Battalion .He left Fremantle on the HMAT A30 on the 29th June the same year attending training with the 13th Training Brigade at Codford. He attended depots in England for duty from July until May 1918. In May 1918 he left for France. He had influenza at the end of that year and was returned to Australia in May 1919.

He returned to live with his family marrying Jessie Hay Pow (1901-1985) in May 1923. This marriage did not last as Jessie married Leonard Edgar McDougall (1901-1972) in November in New South Wales.

In 1931 he was in court accused of trickery and fraudulent behaviour.

He was still living with his parents and siblings at 12 Carrington St, Maylands. In 1936 he is listed as a pensioner in Monger St, Perth.

In the 28th April 1942 he died after he was struck by a tram in Currie Street, Adelaide.

He was buried on the 14th May 1942 at West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide

Arthur Burtwood Wilkinson was born in Belfast, Ireland on the 17th February 1880. There is no detail of his parents, or when he came to Australia. He married Zilla Wilkinson (1887-1956) in 1912 in Claremont, Perth.

He enlisted in September 1914, leaving Fremantle in November on HMAT A11 Ascanius to Gallipoli. He had previously served as a Corporal in in the 2nd Border Regiment.

In Gallipoli he became ill and hospitalised with conjunctivitis, dermatitis, neuralgia and debility. In October 1915, the Board recommended he be struck off strength as he was permanently unfit for service in the field. He returned to England and made Lieutenant Corporal in June 1917and was put on temporary duty at Number 3 Company at Hurdicott. In August that year he attended the School of Instruction at Tidworth.

In February 1918 he was approved to be 2nd Lieutenant and posted to the 11th Battalion. In April he went to France but within a month came down with influenza and debility and was returned to England and then Australia per the HT D27 special leave (1914).

Zilla had possibly been boarding at Ebsworth St as the house was owned by another person.

In September 1919 he applied to be advanced to Bandmaster to fill a vacancy in Brisbane until October 1919, approved to be discharged ‘invalided’ after leave had been taken in September 1920.

They were living in Victoria Park when he died on the 9th December 1928 and is buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

He also died intestate, and his wife Zilla received probate one year later.

Gunner William Longmore Henderson was born on the 20th March 1885 to parents Samuel Henderson (1860- ) and Caroline Mary Stubbins (1859-1905) in Dundee, Angus, Scotland. He was one of three siblings. His brother, Bertram Halliday (1891- 1957) and he arrived in Perth in 1907. They initially lived at 181 Newcastle St, Perth. William married Eva Ellen Hogan (1890-1951) in 1913 in Perth. Their first son was born in 1914 but only lived a few days. They moved to Mount St, Perth.

According to the army record, in 1917 they were living at 34 Ebsworth with Mrs. Jan Hogan and her daughter Sister Mabel Elizabeth Hogan, who had left the year before to join the Australian Army Nursing Service. It may be that Eva was boarding with them as she had a 2-year-old son, and she was due to have her third child in 2018.

William enlisted in April 1917 and left Melbourne in December arriving at Southampton in February 1918. He trained in Egypt and left for France in August 1918 with the 8th Field Artillery Brigade.

In May 1919, he left France for a return to Australia on the HT Main. Another daughter was born in 1921. They were living in Lyons St, Cottesloe.

William died on the 27th September 1939 by suicide. He was found by his brother Bertram.

He was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery.

Staff Nurse Mabel Elizabeth Hogan was born in Busselton on the 9th February 1892 to parents to John William Hogan (1851-1900) and Martha Jane Wisbey (1859-1940). She was one of four siblings. Her younger brother Leslie Gillis Hogan (born 28th May 1897) also served in WWI but his records are unavailable as they are being amalgamated with his WWII records. Mabel’s sister Eva Ellen Hogan (1890-1951) married Gunner William Longmore Henderson who also served in WWI.

Mabel trained for three years at the Perth Children’s Hospital.

She enlisted on the 13th November 1915 and left on the 28th August on the ‘Mooltan’ from Fremantle in September 1916. She arrived in Bombay, India and was posted to the Hislop War Hospital in Secunderabad, then transferred to the SS Delta for temporary duty in April 1917. She moved to Colaba War Hospital in Bombay in December 1917, then to Station Hospital in Bareilly in April 1918.

She was promoted to temporary Sister whilst in India and at sea. In February 1919 she qualified as Sister and a few months later was transferred to Station Hospital Nowshera. She left Bombay for England on the SS Koenig Frederich August in October 1919 and then on to Australia on the ‘Runic’.

She was demobilised in 1920.

In 1932 she married Charles Augustine Howard (1900-1987) in Brisbane, Queensland.

They moved to Melbourne in 1949, and Mabel died there on the 27th June 1964 at the Repatriation Hospital.

Charles went on to marry twice more and died on the 17th June 1987.