Tuesday 10 January 2012

Not in Roll of Honour - Stornoway

On 10 February 1895, William Arthur Bawden was born to Samuel and Sarah Ann of Cromwell Street, Stornoway. Samuel Bawden was a Coastguard. His son emigrated to Australia, and signed up for the AIF on 3 April 1915 at Rainbow in the state of Victoria. He was a farm labourer, later munitions worker. William saw active service, but developed pneumonia during the autumn of 1917. This left him permanently incapacitated, and he was repatriated to Australia in February 1918. In spite of his poor physical condition, William tried to sign up again in August 1918, but was turned down. He died in 1920 - presumably (but not confirmed) of his illness. If I manage to trace his death record, it will give me confirmation of the cause of death and thereby whether this was service related. If this turns out to be the case, William Bawden may be entered on the CWGC records.

For now, I remember him for his service to King and Country between 1915 and 1918. 

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