Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/11/1914

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

23/12/1894

Place of Birth

Williamstown, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

School(s) Attended

Scotch College, Melbourne

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Son of Alexander and Jessie McWilliam of Toorak, Victoria

Burial Place

Walkers Ridge Cemetery, Gallipoli (as an unknown soldier)

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

9 Light Horse Regiment AIF

Died on 30 May 1915, Gallipoli, Turkey, aged 20 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 7, Canberra ACT
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT

McWilliam entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon with the second intake of cadets on 7 March 1912. He was a member of the guard of honour at the Canberra naming ceremony on 12 March 1913. He graduated from RMC on 2 November 1914 and embarked as a Lieutenant in C Squadron of the 9th Light Horse Regiment. He landed on Gallipoli on 21 May in charge of A Troop in C Squadron, 9th Light Horse Regiment. A week later he led a raid on the Turkish trenches at The Nek but during the afternoon of 30 May 1915 McWilliam was shot in the head and died an hour later without regaining conciousness. He and his men had been in action for about four hours, providing supporting fire from Turks Point to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles at Old No.3 Outpost. According to a letter sent to his mother, McWilliam was buried in his dugout in the Reserve Trench on Walkers Ridge.

Description - height 5 feet 11¼ inches, weight 160 pounds, chest 33-36 inches, Presbyterian.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. II, p.194)
AWM Roll of Honour Database
The Scotch Collegian (August 1915) https://www.scotch.vic.edu.au/ww1/indexc.htm
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial