William McGowan - Link to Bo'ness

Driver William McGowan. Authors image

6331 Driver, 3rd Australian Field Ambulance, 3rd Brigade, 1st Australian Division

Age: 27

Date of death: 18.9.17

Buried: Menin Road South Military Cemetery Grave I.U.23

Family history: Son of Robert and Ann McGowan of Bo'ness. He had two brother James and Henry. Henry who, in 1960, sought the whereabouts of his brother’s widow and son when he was visiting his daughter in Brisbane. Before he emigrated to Australia in 1912, William was employed as a porter at the North British Railway Company in Bo’ness. He also served for three years with 10th Battalion Royal Scots as a Territorial. He married Elizabeth, also from Bo’ness, in Queensland and they lived with their only son William at Dovercourt Street, Toowong, Queensland. Following his death his wife remarried.

William gave his trade as Brickburner when he enlisted on 6 August 1915 with the 7th Field Ambulance. He was sent to the Dardanelles on 21 October 1915 and  then to Alexandria on 4 December 1915 and was attached to the 1st Australian Stationery Hospital and on 2 February 1916 he was transferred to the 3rd Field Ambulance. He then sailed from Alexandria on 27 March and landed at Marseilles on 16 April. He was detached from the unit and went to Millencourt Dump, located on the Somme and were III Corps Main Dressing Station was based and today, Millencourt Communal Cemetery Extension is located nearby. He was there from 18 to 28 May when he rejoined his unit. He then had a period of leave in England from 19 July to 5 August and revisited Bo’ness.

Action leading to his death

The 3rd Field Ambulance was evacuating the wounded from the 1st Australian Division front to Kruisstraat and Café Belge with the War Dairy recording that heavy casualties were as a result of enemy shelling around Zillebeke and from Pioneers and working parties. The front of the Division was facing Glencorse Wood. The Advance Dressing Station was on the Menin Road at the Culvert and Birr Cross Roads. There was shelling around the ADS searching for the batteries in the immediate vicinity and this was continuous with three direct hits on the ADS.

Evacuation diagram from 3rd Australian Field Ambulance War Diary September 1917

Notes on the scheme of evacuation