William Joseph ARUNDELL
Year of Birth: 1888
Place of Birth: Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia
Date of Enlistment: 6 September 1915
Date and Place of Embarkation: 30 November 1915, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Ship: HMAT A23 Suffolk
Rank: Private
Unit(s): 46 Battalion, 12th Reinforcements
Regimental Number: 3680
Died: 21 September 1918
William Patrick James Arundell was born in 1888 to William and Johanna Susan (nee Brown). His brothers, Timothy (1885), John (1886) and Virgil (1892) were reported as serving overseas, but only John’s record can be sourced. Their parents were married in 1885 and their father, William, was a policeman in Watsonville, via Herberton. He was killed by a fall from a horse in 1890 and is remembered at the Queensland Police Academy, Oxley, Queensland.
His widow, Susan, married Charles Frederick Moore in 1899 in Townsville. He was a fireman. However, he died after a fight in 1910 and his widow returned to live in Gordonvale for the rest of her life.
William Patrick Arundell, her son, enlisted in the A.I.F. (as William Joseph Arundell) on 6 September 1915. He was a stockman working on Barclay Downs via Camooweal at the time. He was 24 years 9 months of age, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed 9 stone 10 pounds. He had a ruddy complexion, blue eyes and brown hair and was Roman Catholic.
He embarked from Sydney on the HMAT Suffolk landing in Egypt before continuing to France, disembarking at Marseilles on 9 June 1916.
On 20 August 1917 he was awarded the Military Medal for Gallantry –
He was wounded in action on 20 September 1918 and transferred to the 12th Casualty Clearing Station where he died of his wounds the next day. He was buried at La Chapelette British and Indian Cemetery, Peronne, Somme, France. His belongings and his Military Medal were sent to his mother, Susan Harris.
Online Resources
NAA: B2455 (ARUNDELL, William Joseph) National Archives of Australia
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
National Library of Australia: Trove Digitised Newspapers
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre
Queensland Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages
If you have a photograph or further information about this soldier you would like to share and add to his biography, please contact the Society at projects@cdfhs.org or leave a comment below. Thank you!B2455