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William James Gordon enlisted with the Australian, New Zealand & Military Expiditianary
Forces in 1914 with the rank of Sergeant, service nuber: 440 and was discharged in 1915 before
re-enlisting on the... 1916 and left Sydney on board HMAT A24 "Benalla" on the 1st of May 1916
with the service number: 1376.
12th of October 1917
At 3:45pm, no reply having come from Milne, and Dixon not having returned as he had been kept at
35th Battalion headquarters awaiting the arrival of an order from brigade headquarters concerning
the projected operation by the reserve battalion, GADD agreed to withdraw and CARR sent along the
line a note: The 35th Battalion will retire.
When visiting GADD, CARR had warned the troops of the probable order to withdraw, and he now saw
that the left had already begun to retire. He told men whom he passed to get back as fast as they
could to the 34th Battalion (which he believed to be on the first objective).
Captain: William John GORDON M.C
36th Battalion, strongly dissatisfied with the order, went straight to
Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander MILNE, D.S.O
urged that the forward position was tenable, and with Milne and
Major: John Martin HAWKEY, M.C
rushed out to stop the withdrawal. But it was too late.
(BEAN; History of World War 1 Vol IV page 922)
4th March 1918
Captain: William James GORDON. For conspicous ability and consistantly
devoted service during the period September 22nd 1917 to February 24th 1918.
William was a Public Servant from Rose Bay, New South Wales upon enlistment. William served during World War 2. Service number:
NX144767
(Australian National Archives)
Under Construction 30/09/2006.
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