The AIF Project

William RANDALL

Regimental number532
Place of birthAvoca, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationLabourer
AddressAvoca PO, Avoca, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation32
Height5' 7.5"
Weight160 lbs
Next of kinFather, Edward Randall, Avoca PO, Avoca, Victoria
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date29 September 1914
Place of enlistmentAvoca, Victoria
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name14th Battalion, D Company
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A38 Ulysses on 22 December 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll14th Battalion
FateReturned to Australia 5 March 1919
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Plaque in Victorian Garden of Remembrance
Discharge date9 April 1919
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1657 Pte Ernest RANDALL, 6th Light Horse Regiment, returned to Australia, 17 August 1916.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli

Wounded in action, Gallipoli (shrapnel wound, arm), and admitted to No 1 General Hospital, Heliopolis, 1 May 1915; transferred to Convalescent Depot, Helouan, 5 June 1915. Embarked for Gallipoli, 1 August 1915.

Reported missing in action, 8 August 1915; subsequently reported prisoner of war.

Interned at Bozanti near Taurus, Turkey, 21 February 1916.

Transferred to Bilemedik (father notified, 27 July 1916).

Father informed, 20 April 1917, that his son was a prisoner of war in Turkey.

Father wrote to Base records, 7 October 1917: 'I received your notice re a package consisting of kit of Pte W Randall 14 Bat ... prisoner of war, but up to time of writing no such package has come to hand and I have been subjected to considerable annoyance and only made myself look silly running to the post office and Railway station for a parcel that is not there though if I understand the regulations it should have been in my hands over two years since.'

Father wrote to Base Records (undated; received 23 March 1918): 'I beg to state that I received no communication from your office dated 31st August. If any were sent would you kindly repeat, if it is even evidence that my son Pt W.Randall was even alive since June it would be very acceptable. One of his sisters got four lines from himself in Feb last but it was dated June having taken 8 months to get here. No news since. I must leavethe matter in your hands ... He stated we have been shifted again to Bas El Ain hundreds of miles. I might have been on the road Home but have been a camel. Better luck next time.'

Transferred from Bilemedik to Afin Karahissar, Turkey (date not recorded).

Disembarked Port Said from Turkey, 30 November 1918.

Commenced return to Australia from Suez on board HT 'Somali', 25 December 1918; discharged, Melbourne (medically unfit), 9 April 1919.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal
Date of death22 June 1966
SourcesNAA: B2455, RANDALL William

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