William John JOYCE
Year of Birth: 1893
Place of Birth: Omeo, Victoria, Australia
Date of Enlistment: 30 September 1916
Date and Place of Embarkation: 17 November 1916 at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Ship: HMAT Kyarra A55
Rank: Private
Unit(s): 4th Pioneer Battalion
Regimental Number: 3118
Died: 6 May 1918
William John Joyce “Pat” was born in 1893 in Omeo, Victoria to Peter Joyce and his wife Mary (nee Smith). He was the eldest of their three children, followed by two sisters, Ellen Leonta (b, 1903) and Honoria Mary (Nora) (b. 1906) both in Queensland.
When William enlisted, he was 25 years of age, 5 feet 9 inches tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair. His religion was Roman Catholic. He named his father as his next of kin.
On enlistment he entered Enoggera Army Camp in Brisbane from where he embarked on the HMAT Kyarra on 17 November 1916 disembarking in Plymouth, England on 30 January 1917.
In late March that year, he marched out to Fovant, Wiltshire. During World War 1 temporary camps were built in the area to handle training and medical treatment of soldiers. He joined the Pioneer Training Battalion at Camp Sutton Manderville before being transferred to the Machine Gun Corps before proceeding overseas to France from Folkestone, Kent on 26 October 1917.
He was taken on strength with the 10th Machine Gun Company in France on 9 November 1917.
He was killed in action on 6 May 1918 and is remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in the Somme, France.
Online Resources
NAA: B2455 (JOYCE W J) National Archives of Australia
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
National Library of Australia: Trove Digitised Newspapers
Queensland Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages
Ancestry.com.au: Queensland Electoral Rolls
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