Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

11/01/1916

Date of Discharge

02/09/1919

Place of Enlistment

Goulburn NSW

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Queanbeyan NSW (previously Acton ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

D. Espie (brother), Hill End, Gippsland, Victoria

Service Number

1900

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

55 Battalion AIF

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Wes Espie worked as a chainman for the surveyor Arthur Percival in the Territory during 1913. He embarked overseas on 23 June 1916 as a Private with the 3rd reinforcements for the 55th Battalion. He arrived on the front line near Gueudecourt in France in December 1916 but was hospitalised with scabies and influenza. He returned to his unit in April 1917 and fought in battles at the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May 1917 and at Polygon Wood in Belgium in September 1917. He was treated for gout of the left knee in March 1918 and was subsequently diagnosed with periositis of the tibia which saw Espie return to England for treatment. He recovered and returned to France in time to reach the front line just before the Armistice was signed.

Espie married Caroline Keir in Queanbeyan in 1928 and died in Goulburn in February 1960. He was cremated at the Wollongong Crematorium.

Description - height 5 feet 8½ inches, weight 140 pounds, chest 34-37 inches, dark complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Church of England.

National Archives (A202) 1914/4381 Full names of Officers and Employees, Federal Territory Salaries Register
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Queanbeyan Age - 18 September 1914, 2 May 1916, 26 August 1919, 29 August 1919
Goulburn Evening Post - 23 February 1960