Service Number: 946
Enlisted: 24 March 1915
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 20th Infantry Battalion
Born: Teralba, New South Wales, Australia, 6 November 1891
Home Town: Killingworth, Lake Macquarie Shire, New South Wales
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Coal miner
Died: Killed in action, Pozieres, France, 26 August 1916, aged 24 years
Cemetery: No known grave - "Known Unto God"
Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Killingworth War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France)
Gary Mitchell, Sandgate Cemetery

For Barry Copas, remembering his Great Uncle.
Memorialised at Sandgate Cemetery.

104 years ago today, on the 26th August 1916, Private William McWilliams, 20th Battalion (Reg No-946), miner from Killingworth, New South Wales, fell during the Battle of Pozieres, age 24.
http://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1648754/
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133837400
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133843847

Born at Teralba, New South Wales on the 6th November 1891 to James (died 1918) and Hannah Ellen (died 1928) McWilliams, Will enlisted March 1915 at Liverpool, N.S.W.

Admitted to hospital 13.9.1915 (influenza), and wounded in action - 27.7.1916 (shell shock - http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122178342), Mr McWilliams's name has been inscribed on the Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France (This Memorial lists 10,773 names of soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force with no known grave who were killed between 1916, when Australian forces arrived in France and Belgium, and the end of The Great War).
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159092542

Will's name has also been inscribed on the Killingworth Soldiers' Memorial (photos, unveiled on the 1st July 1922), Killingworth Public School Roll of Honour, West Wallsend Public School Roll of Honour and The Capt. Clarence Smith Jeffries (V.C.) and Pte. William Matthew Currey (V.C.) Memorial Wall.

I have placed poppies at his parent's gravesite to honour their son's supreme sacrifice for God, King and Country. CATHOLIC 1-10. 8.
http://sandgate.northerncemeteries.com.au/index.php/war-heroes/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&aso=exact&s_f=id&data_search=27578#2

Older brother Thomas (Reg No-2110, 13th Battalion, born 1870, died 1954) resting same location.

Lest We Forget.
Service No: 946
Age: 24
Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F., 20th Bn.
Son of Hannah Ellen McWilliams, of Killingworth, New South Wales, and the late James McWilliams. Born at Teralba, New South Wales.