Efforts to keep boys home failed
There is a legend in our family that the old men, the fathers of my grandfather and my grandmother, got together and arranged for a marriage, the purpose of which was to keep my grandfather Walter Menzies from going to the war.
I cannot say if the legend is true. I asked my grandmother once and she told me that those times were too unhappy for her to talk about, and given that the plan failed, he went to the war and did not come back, I understand why my nanny kept those memories well buried.
The two families, the Clements and the Menzies, lived close together east of Narrogin.
The men were farmers and my great-grandmother was nurse Grace Menzies, somewhat of a legend as the district's bush nurse and midwife.
When recruiting for World War I began in August 1914, Will Clements was 23 and there was no way for his parents to stop him joining up.
He enlisted and joined the 11th Battalion, who were among the first ashore at Gallipoli.
Will served at Gallipoli for four months, avoiding what the Turks threw at him, but not the illness which touched so many.
He was evacuated with bronchitis in August 1915.
He rejoined the 11th Battalion in France before the Somme offensive of 1916 and before he was invalided out of the front with blistered feet that turned septic.
After recovering, he rejoined the fighting and died from multiple gunshot wounds on November 9, 1916.
At home, the old men's plan failed. Walter married Will's sister Mary Clements but, determined to do his bit, he joined the 16th Battalion, sailing from Fremantle on August 9, 1916.
He was training in Britain when his brother-in-law was killed in action.
Walter wrote home to his family telling them things were hard in England with never enough tucker, saying "we spend all our spare money to get enough to eat".
He was also clearly amazed by his visits to London "which was bigger than you can imagine and with many Australian soldiers as amazed as me by the sights".
In April 1917 he was one of 3300 Australian casualties in the Battle of Bullecourt when he was shot in his left shoulder and arm.
Walter went on to prove his courage at the Battle of Arras in March 1918, and was awarded the Military Medal for "great gallantry and capable leadership" when leading an attack and staying behind to bring in a wounded comrade. He was promoted to sergeant on July 1, but was killed by a bomb dropped by a German plane on July 28, 1918.
When he left, his young bride was pregnant with a daughter, Grace Mary, who although she was never to meet her father, had a deep love and reverence for him.
Another brother, prospector William Albert Menzies, joined up in Adelaide in September 1916.
He was wounded in action in France in July 1917, and after recovering in England returned to South Australia.
Edited by Malcolm Quekett
_·While training in Egypt in 1915, _
_ men of the 11th Battalion gathered on Cheops Pyramid for a photograph. The WA Genealogical Society has divided the photo into grids, so each man is numbered. It is believed Will Clements is number 500 on the grid. Stephen Goode is a grandson of Walter Menzies. _
