Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

07/09/1914

Date of Discharge

18/09/1919

Place of Enlistment

Kensington NSW

Gender

Male

Place of Birth

Leicester, England

Address (at enlistment)

Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Butcher

Next of Kin

Arthur Woolman (father), Leicester, England and later his wife Elizabeth Woolman, Leicester, England

Service Number

582

Final Rank

Sergeant

Final Unit

10 Company, Australian Army Service Corps AIF

Woolman was an Englishman and, although he was a butcher by trade, had been working as a horse breaker at the Royal Military College, Duntroon since at least early 1914, though there are references to man called 'Woolam' in local newspapers in 1912. He served on Gallipoli as a Sergeant with the Australian Army Service Corps, 1st Division Train. He was treated for dysentery in September and returned to Egypt in November 1915. Woolman was detached to the 10th Company, Australian Army Service Corps in December 1915 and transferred to France in April 1916. Whilst on leave he married Elizabeth Jakins at St. Luke's Church, Leicester, England on 7 May 1916. Woolman had been suffering hallux rigidus with both feet since December 1916 at Ville-sur Somme and was later treated for scabies. From October 1917 he spent the remainder of the war in England at the ASC Training Depot and was brought to the notice of the Secretary of State for War for valuable services rendered. He was discharged in London on 18 September 1919 because his wife and family lived in Leicester and he had no dependents in Australia.

Description - height 5 feet 6½ inches, weight 157 pounds, chest 34-36¾ inches, fair complexion, light blue eyes, fair hair, Church of England, scar over his right eye.

Ross Howarth, 'Civilians employed at the Royal Military College of Australia, Duntroon, from 1911 to 1931', RMC Duntroon, November 2000
Queanbeyan Age - 9 February 1912
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Image courtesy of Karin Duncan