5393 Sergeant William John Langdon - 28th Battalion AIF/Australian Army Pay Corps
William Langdon was born on the 12th October 1879 in Litt Victoria to William and Caroline Edwards, being one of eleven siblings.
He grew up in Victoria and was educated there before working as a labourer and hardware store worker.
In 1902 in Victoria William married Elizabeth Amy Smith and they moved to Western Australia a few years later in the late 1900's.
They were then living at 34 Howard Street Fremantle (later renumbered).
On the 1st March 1916 William enlisted into the Australian Imperial Force. He was accepted as fit for service, with the medical examiner recording his physical attributes as;
Height - 5 feet 5 & 1/2 inches tall;
Weight - 9 stone 1;
Chest Measurement - 33-36 inches;
Complexion - Dark;
Eyes - Brown;
Hair - Dark.
Upon his successful enlistment, William was sent to Claremont Camp. He had a few weeks in the depot training company where hew as taken through the basics of infantry work. He was then assigned to the 14th Reinforcements to the 28th Battalion AIF.
His wife died in Cottesloe WA on the 22nd May 1916.
William trained with his reinforcement group in WA for a few months before their embarkation orders arrived. On the 7th August 1916, William and his group entrained to Fremantle Harbour where they boarded the transport ship HMAT Miltiades. The ship then set sail for England, arriving at Plymouth on the 25th September 1916. William and his group were then disembarked and sent to the 7th Training Battalion at Rollestone Camp on the Salisbury Plains.
In November 1916 William was added to the 7th Training Battalion cadre of staff and was promoted to Corporal. William would be on duty at the 7th training Battalion at Rollestone Camp for the next few months. On the 19th April 1917 he was then sent across to France.
After a week in the base depot camp at le Havre he was taken on strength of the 28th Battalion on the 26th April 1917.
William served with the 28th Battalion at Bullecourt in May 1917 but was then evacuated with tonsilitis. He was in hospital in France till the 19th May 1917 and was then shipped to England. William had a few more weeks in hospital and was then sent to No.2 Command Depot Camp at Weymouth at the end of June 1917.
In July 1917 William was transferred to No.3 Command Depot Camp at Hurdcott. His fitness level was not good enough to be sent back to the Western Front, nor was it bad enough to be sent home, so William spent the rest of the war in England. He was initially attached for duty to the depot camps and was put on the permanent staff of the AIF HQ cadre. In December 1918 he was transferred to the Australian Army Pay Corps. He was on this duty into April 1920.
He then boarded the transport ship Maldera and set sail for home, reaching Fremantle on the 13th May 1920. He was discharged from the AIF on the 30th August 1920.
William remarried on the 26th April 1922 to Alice May Adams, and a daughter Eliza was born in 1923 and Muriel in 1926.
The family then moved to 84 Lilly street South Fremantle (later renumbered to 38 Lilly) and William was working as a clerk. They lived here for the next thirty years.
