Richard William GREEN

William Richard Green was born in Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England in 1888 to Alfred Richard Green and Ellen Bailey.

The Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force to New Guinea was mobilized by war service in August 1914 and William Green embarked Cairns on 6 August for Thursday Island War Station Garrison Duty.  He enlisted on 14 August for service outside Australia.  He re-embarked at Thursday Island on 16 August on the Troopship “Kanowna” to take part in the capture of German New Guinea.  He was taken on strength of the A.N. & M.E.F. on 6 September 1914.  The ship returned to Townsville on 18 September on account on the trouble caused by the firemen on the troop ship and did not participate in the capture of German New Guinea.  He was discharged on 18 September 1914.

When he enlisted at Cairns on 19 December 1914 his age was 26 years 3 months, occupation a Baker and had served  his apprenticeship with Gulling & Sons, Portsmouth and his next of kin was Mrs E Green, Mary Villa, Twyford Ave,  Postsmouth, England, this was later changed to Mr. G Green.   His height was  5 feet 7 1/4 inches, weighed 140 pounds with a fair complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair.  He was Anglican.

He embarked from Brisbane on 2 June 1915 on HMAT Aeneas and joined the Expeditionary force on Gallipoli on 4 September 1915.  He returned to Alexandria, Egypt on 9 January 1916 and was admitted to hospital in Cairo on 11 April 1916 with atrophy of his right leg – infantile paralysis . He was medically discharged as unfit and returned to Australia on 10 June 1916.

On his return to Cairns he became a Recruiting Organiser for the A.I.F.  William died of an overdose of laudanum in Cairns Hospital on 17 March 1917.