God Speed & Safe Return : William Henry Bathurst !899 - 1987

William Henry Bathurst 1899

William Henry Bathurst was the third child of miner William Henry Bathurst (1873)  and  Mary Bathurst (nee Fancke) born on the 23rd of April 1899 on the Victorian goldfields in Ballarat.

With stories in the Ballarat newspapers of large amounts of gold being found in Kalgoorlie  and Kalgoorlie being the said to be "the richest square mile on earth"(Ballarat Star 14 Jul 1899)  William's parents decide to take him at the age of 10 weeks  and his two sisters Harriett aged 4  and Myrtle aged 2 and try their luck on a new goldfield in the west, they all depart Melbourne Victoria on the 30th June 1899 on the Australian United Steam Navigation Company ship the "SS Paroo".  Their trip is along the south coast of Australia with stops at Adelaide and Albany and they disembark in Fremantle.



It is unclear to how long the family stayed in Fremantle preparing for the journey 613 km (380 miles) to Kalgoorlie. There were a number of different ways that people seeking their fortune arrived in Kalgoorlie, people walked pushing a wheelbarrow, on horse and cart and some on camel train, however in 1896 a narrow gauge railway reached Kalgoorlie form Perth and offered an overnight service. It is unclear how the exact date the family arrived, but many family members have been told that they walked.

2nd row from back far left 

On arrival, the family settled in an area of Hanna's a location (now suburb) of Kalgoorlie, William remains here until the age of about 12 yrs old, during this time there is the arrival of two brothers and one sister, fredrick George (1902), Barbara Elizabeth (1905) and Ruben Leslie (1908).

The Family move to Ora Banda approximately 70km north west of Kalgoorlie some time between 1912 and 1916 (likely to be around 1913 as the Ora Banda battery was opened)  and at round 13 years old William and joins the Commonwealth Cadet Corps, where it is quite possible this is where he would first learnt to fire a gun. In 1914 William would have another sister, Olive Grace Bathurst.

While living in Ora Banda William joins the Ora Banda Rifle Club of which at some stage he becomes the club secretary . It would seem that he would also become a talented marksman, while a member of the club, as he would win a number of trophies including on the 20th of April 1917 the Barnett Trophy. Three days after winning this award William turns 18 years old and old enough to join the AIF (Australian Imperial Force) and does so the following day in Kalgoorlie.

He attends training at Blackboy Hill training camp in the hills out side of Perth, on the 2nd of June 1917 he is assigned to the 27/16th battalon and later that month attends a machine gun school. In July he is granted special leave and attends a farewell social and dance in the Ora Banda Union Hall in his honour, he is presented with 2 guineas from the Ora Banda Rifle Club and is wished "god speed and a safe return" by all (Kalgoorlie Miner Wed 1st August 1917 page 4).

The 18th of October 1917 he joins a machine gun company in the 27/16th battalion, and the just over a month later on the 24th of November he boards the "SS Canberra" at Fremantle to head for the battlefields of Europe. The Canberra takes William to the port of Suez, Egypt at the southern end of the Suez Cannel where he disembarks. Christmas 1917 is spent in Egypt training and recouping, while here he would buy a metal donkey ashtray which he would return home with.

William thought to be man far right

Early in the New Year, 9th of January 1918, William will again be on a ship continuing his journey to war, this time it is the "RMS Kashgar". He boards the ship at the port of Said, once again in Egypt, but this time at the northern end of the Suez Cannel. He travels for 21 days on the Kashgar stoping in Port Taranto, Italy on the 20th of January and arriving at Southhampton , England on the 30th of January.

Once arriving in England he is stationed at Codford Training and Transfer Camp located in the Wylye valley in Wiltshire, until the 20th of May when he departs by sea from the port of Folkestone heading to the western front in France. Two days later he arrives at the AIBD (Australian Infantry Battalion Depot) in France, as relief for the AIF 16th battalion, on the 1st of July 1918 he is provides relief to the 16th battalion and is probably move up to the front. However he finds himself in hospital in Rouen, France on the 17th of July with influenza, it seems that he must go back to the front at some stage as he returns to hospital and is invalided back to to England with a scrap wound to the head. this possibly happened during German counter attacks after the battle of Hamel. William spends time in two hospitals in England after being evacuated, strangely it would seem that for 20 days he was at the Kitchener Military hospital in Brighton, strange as this was a hospital that was for Indian soldiers. Then he was moved to Harefield, on the 14th of August, which was in Harefiled Park House and was the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital.

William & Daisy wedding 1922

He remains at Harefield until the 2nd of November when he is sent back to France and joins the training brigades of the AIF 4th brigade. On the 11th of November 1918 the war ends with the signing of the armistice, however William remains in France with the 12th training battalion until the 28th of February 1919 when he leaves Devonport, England on the "HMAT Anchises" headed for Australia. On the 7th of April William arrives back in Australia, in Albany.

After returning from the war William heads back to the goldfields of Western Australia, but this time takes up residents in Westoina . He finds work as a clerk and he lives in Granite Street with his sister Harriett Bathurst  and Arthur Henry Allsopp. Arthur also lived in Ora Banda prior to the war and being slightly older than William signed up 1916 but returned on the same ship to Australia. The following year William's parents also move to the address at Westoina with his father taking on work as a miner.

On the 4th of February 1922 William Henry Bathurst marries Daisy Elizabeth Dymock, and they open a greengrocer shop at 15 George Street, East Fremantle, on the corner of Glyde Street, and also a greengrocer truck selling fruit and vegetables door to door. William continues to run his fruit and vegetable business at this location until sometime between 1926 and 1931. During this time William and Daisy have three children, Doris Elizabeth Bathurst, 12th November 1922, William Henry Bathurst (jr) 27th October 1924 and Roma Joyce Bathurst 1925, Unfortunately Roma Joyce dies on the 25th of November 1925,

Greengrocer Truck 

Some time around 1931  William moves his family to View Terrace, Bicton, here he also has a shop providing groceries to the local community. He and his family live at this address unit around 1937, in the later period of this time will was working as a labourer.

In 1939 Australia was at war again, William once again answers the call, how ever this time he remains in Australia and is stationed at the Leighton Battey and Swanbourne Battery as part of the Fremantle fortress  and coastal defences of Australia. He remains at these posts until the end of the war in 1945. During this time he move with his wife and daughter to Foss Street, Becton, While living at Foss Street, William had employment working as the fruit and vegetable manager at Stammers supermarket in Petra Street, East Fremantle, a labourer, store-man and a truck driver. Then He Daisy move to Charleston Street in Myaree, at this time he works for the Soltogios Brothers, an automotive wrecker in Bibra Lake.

William & Daisy

William and Daisy then live in a duplex on Marmion Street, Palmyra, where he grows vegetables and has a chicken pen and possibly a pet kangaroo in the back yard. It would seem that even after seventy something years it was hard for William to give up his connection with the bush. From here both he and Daisy would reside at Braemar lodge on the corner of Stock Road and French Road in Palmyra. While living here William would lose Daisy his wife of 63 years on the 17th of January 1985 aged 90. William continues to live heartbroken for a further 13 months until he also passes away on the 9th of March 1987, he was then cremated at Fremantle Cemetery and his ashes where placed with that of his wife and their daughter Roma Joyce.