Perks, William Thomas
No.339 – Private William Thomas Perks – 4th Machine Gun Company
William Thomas Perks was born in Marmion Street East Fremantle in 1897 to Edwin and Emily Perks. He was the first of several children and also received his initial education in Fremantle. At this time his father was also a member of the Fremantle Volunteer Rifles.
In approximately 1904 the family moved to Midland where William completed his schooling. The family soon moved again to Korbel, near Merredin, where they had a farm. William worked as a farm hand on this property.
With the outbreak of war William was eager to enlist but was too young to go without his parents’ permission. However his father who was 43 years old enlisted in August 1915 and was assigned to the reinforcements to the 12th Battalion and left WA in December 1915.
This spurred William on, and in March 1916 he presented himself to the Recruiting Officer in Merredin who classed him as fit for service. The medical examiner found William to be 6 feet 3 & ½ inches tall; weight of 198 lbs; chest measurement of 35-39 inches; fair complexion; blue eyes and dark hair. His religious denomination was Methodist.
After his successful enlistment it seems that William was initially sent to No.5 Training Depot at Blackboy Hill Camp. After a short time he was transferred to the 14th Reinforcements to the 28th Battalion. He trained with this group for a few weeks but was then transferred to the 4th Reinforcements to the 4th Machine Gun Company. Training on the Vickers Machine Gun then commenced for the next few weeks, but when their embarkation orders came through they packed up camp and proceeded to Fremantle Harbour where they boarded the HMAT Miltiades.
After the long sea voyage to England they berthed at Plymouth on the 25th September 1916. They were disembarked and were initially sent to No.3 Camp at Parkhouse. William remained here for the next seven weeks and on the 14th November was transferred to the Australian Machine Gun Training Depot at Grantham. He would remain at Grantham for the next two months apart from four days in hospital.
On the 19th January 1917 William was in a draft of men sent to France and on arrival was sent to the Australian Machine Gun Training Depot at Camiers. William remained at Camiers until the 17th March 1917 when he marched out of camp and was taken on strength of the 4th Machine Gun Company. He didn’t have to wait long to see action in his first major action as on the 11th April 1917 he went forward at Bullecourt in support of the 4th Brigade.
In the advance at Bullecourt the machine gunners sustained heavy casualties but with the infantry did manage to get into the German lines. They remained in the line for several hours but a lack of support and reinforcements meant that the survivors would have to withdraw. William was not among those who came back to his unit after the assault and as the Germans had taken a very heavy toll of the machine gunners, William was declared as killed in action.
Unfortunately there is no record of any burial for William but if he had been killed in the German lines he most likely would have been buried with other Australian troops in one of the nearby shell holes. As a result William Thomas Perks is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
His father Edwin served in the initial period of 1916 with the 12th Battalion before being transferred to the 52nd Battalion. Before this unit left Egypt he was transferred to the 4th Pioneer Battalion, with whom he saw service in France. Edwin was invalided home in 1917. Emily Perks would receive a pension of 40/- per fortnight after her son’s death.
(photo of William Perks and his sister Lavinia Smith from Perks family Ancestry page)