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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. William Blyth
British Army 10th Battalion Black Watch
from:Edinburgh
Bill Blyth ran away from home to join the Army in 1914 giving his age as 21 when in fact he was only 17 years old. He was born in 1897 in Manuel, Dumbartonshire, Scotland where his father was the station master.
By August 1916 he had been with the Field Force for 11 months. He received a gunshot wound to the upper, right thigh on 3rd of August 1916 and was subsequently transferred to the Hospital ship SS Galeka. Two weeks later on 18th of August 1916 he was transferred from the hospital ship to the Ambulance Train Depot.
He fought with the 10th Battalion, Black Watch in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Macedonia. He was gassed with mustard gas in Flanders during the Battles of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) between July and November 1917.
His mother died in 1911 and his father died in 1918 before he arrived home. His brother younger brother Andrew was a master mariner in the Merchant Navy and also fought in WWI.
Bill departed London on 2nd of July 1920 on the steamship Themistocles with his 3 sisters Jane (aka Jean, a school teacher aged 34), Janet (a clerk aged 30) and Alison (aka Dulcie, a tracer aged 19) to migrate to Australia. Following a 40 day trip they arrived in Brisbane, Australia in August 1920. He never saw his homeland again. He married Freda Marjinetta Hammond in Melbourne, Australia in 1929. He built a new house in Box Hill in 1929 in time for his November marriage to Freda Marjinetta Hammond, where he resided for the remainder of his life. Bill and Freda had one daughter, Margaret Ann in 1937. Bill worked as an accountant for Email & met up regularly with (Sir)Frank Packer (& reportedly also (Sir)Ian Potter) to discuss investments and the share market. He must have experienced some heavy losses as Margaret's school fees at PLC (Presbyterian Ladies College) in Melbourne were paid by a benefactor; anecdotally reported to have been (Sir) Frank Packer. Andrew migrated to Australia with his family after WWII and settled in Melbourne.
Bill suffered with Petit Mal (a mild form of epilepsy) and died at the age of age 64 of aplastic anaemia which doctors attributed to his exposure to mustard gas during the war. He was cremated and is buried at Springvale Botanical Cemetery He was a shy, quite man.
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