| Notes |
William Ernest Cotterill enlisted as a Private in the AIF 2 Infantry B
attalion - 1 to 12 Reinforcements 28 Jan 1915, Service No. 1934, occup
ation given at that time as Horse Dealer and Driver and address as You
g, NSW, age given as 31 but in fact would have been about 35. (http:/
/www.awm.gov.au/cms_images/awm8/23_19_2/pdf/0272.pdf) Embarked HMAT H
onorata, 13 April 1915, in Sydney. (http://www.awm.gov.au/nominalrolls
/ww1/embarkation/person.asp?p=61067) At the time of the death of hi
s younger brother, Eric Roland, in action at Gallipoli, he was in Egyp
t with the AIF. (MEN OF THE DARDANELLES. (1915, June 11). The Sydney M
orning Herald (NSW : 1842-1954), p. 8. Retrieved December 16, 2010, fr
om http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15584578) He was admitted to Hel
iopolis hospital on 12 Aug 1915 for about a month with bomb wounds t
o the face and neck acquired on 8th August whilst with A coy of th
e 2 Bn in the famous action at Lone Pine. After the withdrawal from G
allipoli, the battalion returned to Egypt. In March 1916, it sailed fo
France and the Western Front. During his year he was by now a staf
f sergeant. in the AMTS. He was again hospitalised, this time with Nil
e fever and when discharged seems to be going to Alexandria. From the
until 1918 the battalion took part in operations against the Germa
Army, principally in the Somme Valley in France and around Ypres i
Belgium. The battalion's first major action in France was at Pozie?r
es in the Somme valley in July 1916. Later the battalion fought at Ypr
es, in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter. In early 1
917 the German Army withdrew to the formidable defences of the Hindenb
urg Line. As the 2nd Battalion advanced towards these defences in Apri
l 1917, Private T. J. Kenny attacked several enemy machine gun positio
s with grenades, earning the 2nd Battalion's only Victoria Cross. Th
e battalion spent much of the rest of 1917 fighting in increasingly ho
endous conditions around Ypres. Perhaps significantly, a couple of A
WLs and some odd medical entries ("can't sleep; months") were recorde
d in his records around this time. In 1918 the battalion returned t
o the Somme valley and helped to stop the German spring offensive in M
arch and April. The battalion subsequently participated in the Allies
' own offensive, launched to the east of Amiens on 8 August 1918. Thi
s advance by British and Empire troops was the greatest success in a s
ingle day on the Western Front, one that German General Erich Ludendor
ff described as "the black day of the German Army in this war". The b
attalion continued operations until late September. At 11 am on 11 Nov
ember, 1918, the guns fell silent. The November armistice was followe
d by the peace treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919. Between N
ovember 1918 and May 1919 the men of the 2nd Battalion returned to Aus
tralia for demobilisation and discharge. [Source: AWM] He returned t
o Australia on 12 June 1919, his unit being the Australian Motor Trans
port Section. Family lore suggest one of the Cotterill sons was so tr
aumatised by the Great War that he "was never the same again" and jus
t boarded a train at Chatswood railway station one day and was never h
eard from again. There have also been suggestions that George Townsen
d Cotterill bought the farm/orchard at Castle Hill because one of th
e boys "needed somewhere quiet to live". If the family stories are tru
e, it seems probable that this was William Ernest Cotterill, whose dea
th details are unknown.
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1880 - UNKNOWN
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