Carter, William

3424 Private William Carter - 16th Battalion AIF

William Carter was born in Fremantle WA in approximately 1880. He was educated and grew up in Fremantle. He was one of several siblings and after leaving school took up a variety of jobs in the local area.

By the time of the Great War he was working as a cellarman and had been working in the Fremantle and Perth regions.

On the 29th July 1915 William enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force. He was found to be physically fit and was accepted for service. The medical examiner recorded William's physical attributes as;

Height - 5 feet 3 & 3/4 inches tall;

Weight - 132lbs;

Chest Measurement - 32-25 inches;

Complexion - Fair;

Eyes - Blue;

Hair - Dark.

William also listed his next of kin as his brother George who was living in Perth.

Upon his successful enlistment William was sent to Blackboy Hill Camp. He spent around six weeks in the Training depot where he was taken through the basics of infantry work. On the 27th September 1915 he was transferred into the 11th Reinforcements to the 16th Battalion AIF.

He trained with this group in WA for the next five weeks. On the 1st November 1915 they received their departure orders and so entrained to Fremantle Harbour where they boarded the transport ship HMAT Benalla. The ship then set sail for Egypt, reaching there towards the end of the month.

The men would have been expecting to be sent on to Gallipoli, but with the evacuation plans for that battlefield now in place, William and his group were sent to the AIF reinforcement camp. William spent the next few months at the training camp in Egypt. He was finally taken on strength of the 16th Battalion on the 7th March 1916.

He trained with them in Egypt for the next few months and on the 1st June 1916 boarded a troopship which took him to France, arriving at Marseilles on the 9th June 1916.

William and his unit were then entrained to Northern France and were sent to the Armentieres sector. They had a few weeks of gaining experience on the Western Front but were then sent to the Somme battlefield.

The village of Pozieres had been captured by the Australians on July 23rd 1916 and the advance continued to make slow progress from there to Mouquet Farm. On the 6th August 1916 the 16th Battalion went into the line. William had a few days there when he was blown up by a shell on the 10th August. Fortunately he had not been hit by any of the shrapnel but was suffering from shell shock. He was evacuated but only spent five days in hospital before returning to his unit. William then served with the 16th Battalion at their second engagement at Mouquet Fram on the 30th August 1916.

He survived this action and the 16th Battalion were then sent to Belgium in September and October 1916. In November 1916 they returned to the Somme battlefield and spent the 1916/17 French winter at this locality.

On the 13th January 1917 William was evacuated due to suffering from defective vision but was returned to his unit shortly after.

William's records are sparse on details for 1917 which means that he got through several engagements without being wounded. He served through Stormy Trench in February 1917 and Bullecourt in April 1917. In June 1917 the 16th Battalion moved to Messines in Belgium to take part in that action and he again came through unscathed.

The 16th Battalion remained in the Messines sector from June to August 1917. In September 1917 the 16th battalion moved up to Ypres in Belgium to take part in the current offensive operations taking place there. On September 26th the 16th Battalion were involved in operations at Polygon Wood. William was not wounded but suffered a sprained ankle and was evacuated to the 10th General Hospital at Rouen. He spent around six weeks away from his unit and rejoined them on the 13th November 1917.

On the 6th December 1917 William was detached for duty with the 1st Army Infantry School but while there he suffered a fractured arm and was sent to the 2nd Canadian General Hospital on the 22nd December 1917. He was then sent to England for further treatment and was sent to Fovant Military Hospital.

William was here for over a month and on the 4th February 1918 once his arm had healed he was transferred to No.3 Command Depot Camp at Hurdcott. He was here for the next few months and on the 27th April 1918 was transferred to the Overseas Training Brigade Camp at Longbridge Deverell.

William then returned to France on the 22nd May 1918 and was taken on strength of the 16th Battalion on the 30th May 1918. The 16th Battalion were then situated near the Hamel and Villers-Bretonneux sector of the Somme river front.

On the 4th July 1918 William took part in his unit's successful action at the Battle of Hamel and a month later advanced with his unit as part of the successful Amiens advance of August 8th 1918. The 16th Battalion were in constant action from August 8th through to September 18th 1918 and William came through all these engagements safely.

After their last action at Le Verguier on September 18th 1918, the 16th Battalion was withdrawn for a well deserved rest period. They spent several weeks out of the front line and were just about to return to the front when the Armistice was signed on the 11th November 1918.

When the armistice was signed the Germans withdrew to behind their own borders, and so the Australian units were sent into what had been German occupied parts of Belgium and France.

William remained with his unit for two more months, but on the 17th January 1919 he left the 16th Battalion for the last time and proceeded to the base depot at Le Havre. After a further week here, William returned to England on the 24th January 1919. After arriving in England he was sent to No.4 Command Depot Camp where he would wait to be assigned a berth on a troopship home.

On the 28th February 1919 William boarded the troopship Anchises in Devonport Harbour and set sail for Australia. Unfortunately the ship bypassed Fremantle, but the West Australian soldiers aboard were disembarked in Albany on the 7th April 1919 and were then entrained north for Perth.

After a medical check up at No.8 Australian General Hospital in South Terrace Fremantle, William was discharged from the AIF on the 4th June 1919.

William Carter died in Hollywood Hospital in 1957 aged 78. He was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery plot Anglican ZK 0451.