Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

18/03/1916

Place of Enlistment

Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Tamworth NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Clerk

Next of Kin

Husband of Mrs. Irene Bryant of 'Portvale', 61 Corunna Rd, Stanmore NSW

Burial Place

26 Villers-Bretonneux France

Service Number

2266

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

55 Battalion AIF

Died (killed in action by a shell) on 9 May 1917 during the Second Battle of Bullecourt, France.

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 160, Canberra ACT
St John the Baptist's Church, Canberra, Roll of Honour, Reid ACT: Recorded as W.T. Bryant
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT (where he is listed correctly as Bryant, W.H.)
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW
Roll of Honour 1914-19 in Queanbeyan Masonic Centre, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Bryant was a parishioner of St. John's church in Reid and began working as a bookkeeper at Duntroon in May 1912. He enlisted on 18 March 1916 and embarked for England in September 1916. He joined B Company of the 55th Battalion in the trenches near Flers, France on 24 December 1916 and would have taken part in his battalion's attack on Doignies in April 1917. On 9 May 1917 he was killed in action near Bullecourt by a shell explosion while in a dugout. According to Alex Dawson from Queanbeyan, "he was known as 'Billy'" and "was about 5 foot 4 inches, pretty thickset, dark, cleanshaven ..married in Australia just before coming away. I saw his grave which is where our support line was at Bullecourt in a sunken road which runs about 200 yards in rear of Bullecourt, facing Reincourt, about ¾ of a mile to the right of Bullecourt. There is a cross with his name, number and battalion on it". Bryant is commemorated on the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. He was survived by his wife Irene (nee Priest) whom he married in 1908 in Sydney, and three children, Freda, Charles and Ronald.

Description - height 5 feet 3½ inches, weight 144 pounds, chest 36½ inches, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair, Church of England

AWM First World War Nominal Roll
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Files
AWM Collections Record : P02204.001
Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
Queanbeyan Age - 5 June 1917, 17 September 1918
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages - http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/search.htm
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)