3510 Private DUNCAN William

54th Australian Infantry Battalion, 9th Reinforcements 

William was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 10 October 1870. He was an apprentice at J Elliott, Horwich Lancashire for nine years. 

After his marriage to Elizabeth Ann Darbyshire, 18 November 1896 they emigrated to Australia with four children. (2 other children had predeceased them.) Sailing on the ship Persic, they arrived in Sydney, 15 September 1911. 

William had a butcher shop in Young before enlisting for service on 8 January 1917 at Cootamundra. His next of kin was his wife Elizabeth, Lower Burrowa Street, Young. His Attestation papers record him being at the Cootamundra Camp as Sergeant Butcher, for 9 months, then proceeding to Victoria Barracks, Sydney. 

William embarked on the Troopship HMAT A68 Anchises on 24 January 1917 and disembarked Devonport England on 27 March 1917. He proceeded to France from Southampton arriving Havre 25 July 1917, marching into his Unit on 11 August. William was killed in action at the Battle of Polygon Wood in Belgium on 26 September 1917 aged 48 years. William was buried in Oxford Road Cemetery, Ypres, Flanders, Belgium