SERVICE PERSON RESEARCH
SERVICE PERSON DETAILS
Service Person’s
Name
Rank
Service Number
Regiment/Unit or
Ship or Squadron
Date of Birth
Place of Birth
Family Details
Age at Enlistment
Place of Enlistment
Date of Death
Place of Death
Cemetery or
Memorial Name
Grave or Memorial
Number
William Turton
Private
213
B Company, 9th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 1st AIF
October 1891
Bundaberg, Queensland Australia
Single
Father: Alfred H Turton
Mother: Ellen Turton
24
Brisbane
20 May 1915
Gallipoli
Beach Cemetery, Anzac Cove, Gallipoli
Plot 1, Row 1, Grave 9
PHOTO
Private William Turton, one of the soldiers photographed in The Queenslander
Pictorial, supplement to The Queenslander, 1914. Digitised from The
Queenslander, 7 November, 1914, item is held by John Oxley Library, State
Library of Queensland. Photograph appears on p. 27 of The Queenslander
Pictorial, supplement to the Queenslander, 7 November, 1914.
Source: Trove 2015,
SERVICE PERSON’S STORY/EULOGY:
Prepared by Bailey Roth
William Turton was born in Bundaberg, Queensland in 1891 to Alfred and Ellen Turton who had migrated
from England. Soon after his birth the family moved to Brisbane and lived at Clifton Terrace, Red Hill, only
a few hundred metres from where I go to school at the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries at
Kelvin Grove. William attended the Normal School, Normal meaning non denominational, and after
finishing worked as a whip maker requiring a high level of craftsmanship for this intricate leather work.
William was very quickly caught up in the fervour of the First World War being among the first to enlist on
26 August 1914, just weeks after Britain’s declaration of war and a couple of months before his 23rd
birthday. William was allocated to B (Bravo) Company of the 9th Infantry Battalion which to this day holds
the highest number of battle honours of any Australian military unit. After initial training at Enoggera in
Brisbane with his new battalion, he sailed on HMAT Omrah on 24 September 1914. This must have been
an amazing experience for the young newly enlisted soldier, marching through the streets of Brisbane to
the flag waving cheering crowds which lined the streets to the Pinkenba wharf where the battalion was to
meet its steam powered transport.
Mostly believing they were heading to the Western Front in France, the political manoeuvring in Britain
would change the course of history for young William and Australia. Winston Churchill had plans to open
an eastern front which he believed would defeat Germany and its ally Turkey. To achieve this, the British
Navy would need to take control of the narrow heavily defended shipping lane know as the Dardanelles
bounded to the west by the Gallipoli peninsula. After an unsuccessful attempt by the navy to force their
way through the Dardanelles, including the loss of an Australian submarine, plans were drawn for a land
force to take control of the Gallipoli peninsula and defeat its heavy fortifications. The 1st AIF steaming from
Australia were diverted to Egypt, a short trip across the Mediterranean Sea to Gallipoli, where they would
spend several months in training camps preparing for the landing at Gallipoli.
Prior to dawn on 25 April William Turton and his fellow soldiers from the 9th Battalion transferred into the
small landing boats and made their way ashore not knowing exactly what to expect. Legend has it that the
very first Australian ashore at Gallipoli at 4:30am that fateful morning was a soldier from the 9th Battalion.
Was it our William, we do not know, though for certain he was not far behind as the entire battalion was
landed by 5am, followed for the rest of the day and into the night by the many thousands of men of the
Anzac Division. Much has been recorded of having landed on the wrong beach and the Australians were
faced with almost impenetrable cliffs and gullies, however as ordered they moved up as quickly as they
could and commenced what would be the intense struggle of the Gallipoli campaign for the next nine
months costing 7,500 Australian lives.
Young William survived these first few days and weeks however less than a month after landing, on 20
May, he was seriously wounded and evacuated to the relative safety of the beach and is recorded as having
died 23 May 1915. Next to nothing is recorded about William’s circumstances though unlike thousands of
his fellow soldiers he received a proper burial and his grave recorded, such were the indescribable
conditions of Gallipoli.
William’s story is so very representative of thousands of young Australians of the Gallipoli campaign. Young
fit, passionate men who sacrificed everything for adventure, their mates, their country and probably
unknowingly, for us, the future generations of the young nation of Australia. Their legend is now firmly
entrenched in our history and we commemorate these brave young Australians of all conflicts to ensure we
never forget their sacrifice. Through this research and putting a face to a name has given me the
opportunity in a small way to walk in William’s shoes, to understand what these young men experienced
and to better understand the importance of their deeds.
The First World War was a time of great sacrifice for the Turton family, losing William at Gallipoli in 1915
and his older brother Alfred in Europe in 1918. An indescribable, and barely understandable, loss. A
sacrifice of not only many Australian families but families on both sides of conflict, across the world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Australian War Memorial 2015, Roll of Honour – 213 Private William Turton
www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1671079/ (accessed 3 February 2015)
Australian War Memorial 2015, Embarkation Roll – 213 Private William Turner
www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1838088/ (accessed 3 February 2015)
Australian War Memorial 2015, War Diaries, 9th Infantry Battalion, 20 May 1915,
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1003197/?image=5#display-image (accessed 20 February 2015)
Gallipoli and the ANZACS, Official Commonwealth War Graves Listing 2015, TURTON, Private, William 213
http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/2visiting/graves/g_beachmap.html (accessed 7 February 2015)
Lowndes, C 2011, Ordinary Men Extraordinary Service: The World War 1 experiences of the 9th Battalion,
Boolarong Press, Salisbury, Brisbane, Australia
Mackay North State High School 2015, Private William Turner
http://resources.macknortshs.eq.edu.au/ANZAC/debtmenlist.htm (accessed 7 February 2015)
National Archives of Australia, Turton William 213 http://dhistory.org/archives/naa/items/8395673/
(accessed 12 February 2015)
The AIF Project 2015, William Turton, https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=306748
(accessed 7 February 2015)
Trove 2015, W. Turton, one of the soldiers photographed in The Queenslander Pictorial, supplement to The
Queenslander, 1914,
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/192631873?q=william+turton&c=picture&versionId=210740072
(accessed 12 February 2015)