William Truscott

There is very little that I know about William Truscott's personal life such as marriage and children at this stage, but I do know that at a very young age his name was found on a mining lease along with his father, Frederick in Charters Towers. William was only about 11 at the time which would not have been uncommon back then. William was the 6th child of Frederick and Margaret and was born in Charters Towers on 29th August 1894.

On the 6th November 1916, William joined the AIF and was listed as being single and his occupation was a miner. He was still living at home and he named his father as being his next of kin. He originally had his mother's name written down but crossed it out and changed it to his father. I am wondering why this happened? Perhaps it was because a few of the boys joined up and it made sense to share the next of kin between mother and father in case something happened to more than one of the boys in the way of compensation or it could have also been in case something happened to one of the parents. I'm not entirely sure.

I love reading about what they looked like on their enlistment forms and they do all sound as though they looked somewhat alike.

William was 5 feet 7 inches and weighed 140 pounds. He had a fair complexion with blue eyes and dark, brown hair.

On 11th May 1917, William embarked at Melbourne aboard the ship Ascanius for overseas duty. William was in 11th Machine Gun Company and whilst in active duty on 3rd April 1918 he was admitted to Bath Memorial Hospital in London suffering from a gunshot wound to his left thigh.

I have included just some of the information from his war records.

By 1925 William was on the Australian Electoral Roll as living at home with his parents near Ipswich, Queensland.

On the 19th Dec 1962 a claim was lodged with the Commonwealth of Australia for repatriation benefits for William.