William Cowrie Kemp 1059

SAPPER WILLIAM COWRIE KEMP 1059 - 3rd Tunnelling Company

William Cowrie Kemp was born in Lord Clyde, Victoria in 1885, the son of John Kemp and Martha Ganges (nee Boulger) Kemp. He moved to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia during the gold rush of the early 1900's.

William married Annie Wynne at Boulder, WA in 1913. A son, James Boulger Kemp, was born in 16 December 1913.

Prior to enlisting, William was working on the mines as a timber cutter and miner but later got a job as a printer. He applied to Enlist in the A.I.F. on 20 November 1915 at Kalgoorlie, stating he was 30 years old.

He was found to be fit for active service and his vital statistics were recorded as 5’4½” tall, weight 140lbs. He had a medium complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair and recorded his religion as Roman Catholic. He gave his address as Post Office, Fimiston, and named his wife as his Next-of-Kin, allotting three-fifths of his pay for the support of his wife and children.

William recorded that he had spent 1 week in the Remount Section of the AIF before being discharged at his own request.

At Blackboy Hill near Perth on 24 November he was appointed to No.3 Company of the Mining Corps.

The original No.3 Company consisted of Company Headquarters and 3 Sections recruited in the 5th M.D. (Western Australia). The major portion of No.3 Company was recruited by 2nd Lt. L.J. Coulter, A.I.F. who was sent from N.S.W. to W.A. for that purpose.

Recruiting for the Miners’ Corps began officially on December 1st, 1915. The recruits were placed for basic training the following day at the Helena Vale camp at Blackboy Hill, W.A. as the Corps was being established.

No.3 Company recruits at Blackboy Hill, 3 December 1915 & on Parade - 16 December 1915 Photos courtesy Graeme Williams, grandson of 1202 Spr Charles Williams – 3ATC No.3 Company, with a strength of 1 Officer and 274 Other Ranks embarked from Fremantle, W.A. on December 18, 1915 and sailed to Sydney, NSW on board the troopship SS Indarra.

On Boxing Day (Dec 26th), 1915 the Unit arrived in Sydney and marched into Casula Camp, near Liverpool, NSW. They were joined by the 4th Section of the Tasmanian Miners, bringing the establishment strength up to 15 officers and 349 Other Ranks under the command of 2nd Lieutenant L.J. Coulter. Mining Corps Units from all Military districts came together at Casula to complete training as a Corps. William embarked at Sydney on HMAT A38 Ulysses on 20 February 1916. At a civic parade in the Domain, Sydney on Saturday February 19, 1916, a large crowd of relations and friends of the departing Miners lined the four sides of the parade ground. Sixty police and 100 Garrison Military Police were on hand to keep the crowds within bounds. The scene was an inspiriting one.

On the extreme right flank, facing the saluting base, were companies of the Rifle Club School; next came a detachment of the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, then the bands of the Light Horse, Liverpool Depot, and the Miners’ on the left, rank upon rank, the Miners’ Battalion.

Following the farewell parade in the Domain, Sydney, the Australian Mining Corps embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on 20 February 1916 on board HMAT A38 Ulysses.

The Mining Corps comprised 1303 members at the time they embarked with a Headquarters of 40; No.1 Company – 390; No.2 Company – 380; No.3 Company – 392, and 101 members of the 1st Reinforcements.

Ulysses arrived in Melbourne, Victoria on 22 February and the Miners were camped at Broadmeadows while additional stores and equipment were loaded onto Ulysses. Another parade was held at the Broadmeadows camp on March 1, the Miners’ Corps being inspected by the Governor-General, as Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth military forces.

Departing Melbourne on 1 March, Ulysses sailed to Fremantle, Western Australia where a further 53 members of the Corps were embarked. The ship hit a reef when leaving Fremantle harbour, stripping the plates for 40 feet and, although there was a gap in the outside plate, the inner bilge plates were not punctured. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’. The Miners were off-loaded and sent to the Blackboy Hill Camp where further training was conducted. After a delay of about a month due to Ulysses requiring repairs following a collision with an uncharted rock when leaving Fremantle on 8 March, The Mining Corps sailed for the European Theatre on 1 April 1916. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’.

The ship arrived at Suez, Egypt on 22 April, departing for Port Said the next day; then on to Alexandria. The Captain of the ship was reluctant to take Ulysses out of the Suez Canal because he felt the weight of the ship made it impossible to manoeuvre in the situation of a submarine attack. The Mining Corps was transhipped to B1 Ansonia for the final legs to Marseilles, France via Valetta, Malta. Arriving at Marseilles on 5 May, most of the men entrained for Hazebrouck where they arrived to set up their first camp on 8 May 1916.

A ‘Mining Corps’ did not fit in the British Expeditionary Force, and the Corps was disbanded and three Australian Tunnelling Companies were formed. The Technical Staff of the Corps Headquarters, plus some technically qualified men from the individual companies, was formed into the entirely new Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company (AEMMBC), better known as the ‘Alphabetical Company’.

On 20 May, William and a number of the miners were attached to No.4 Section, 254 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers, for training in tunnelling and mining as employed in warfare.

He was officially transferred to the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company on 18 December 1916.

3ATC End-of-War Report: In September 1917 operations on road construction and maintenance in the Loos, Maroc and St Pierre localities were terminated, closing a record of several months of important reconstruction work in the advanced areas. The Sappers liberated from this work, started on preliminary work in construction with the reconnaissances of the Advanced unconsolidated trench areas at Lens and Hill 70. At the permanent tunnel systems of Hulluch – St Elie – Vermelles Sector, work was continued in extending the subways and Dugout accommodation for garrison troops, in maintaining an efficient state of sanitation, and repair, and in “Listening” in the mine listening galleries in advance of the Front Line Trenches. While working with the unit at Hill 70 near Lens, William was wounded on 4 September 1918, suffering a Gun Shot wound to the head. The wound was not considered serious and after a basic dressing at the 18th Casualty Clearing Station he rejoined his unit on the 13 September 1917.

Western Argus, Kalgoorlie, WA – Tuesday 25 September 1917: AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION W.A. ROLL OF HONOUR Perth, Sept. 21. The 339th list of casualties among West Australians serving with the A.I.F. in the various theatres of war (in which men whose rank is not mentioned are private soldiers) is as follows: WEST AUSTRALIA. WOUNDED Spr. Wm. Cowie Kemp, Fimiston; Article Abridged

William returned to Hill 70 front line area.

3ATC End-of-War Report: During November, 1917, at the permanent tunnels of the Hulluch – St Elie – Vermelles Sectors operations were restricted to the improvement of existing dugout accommodation. The light railway lines were carried to forward portions of the subways. Observation Posts and Regimental Aid Posts were improved and constructed. The Water supply to Battalions in the Front Line was much improved. Listening Patrols were maintained in the forward galleries and all reports of suspected enemy mining operations were investigated. In many places old enemy timbered galleries and gun emplacements were stripped of more valuable cut timber. In the Trench Sector facing Lens similar works were developed at strategic points, but on a less concentrated front that the advanced Loos Salient.

William was the brother-in-law of 4520 Sapper William George Woodgate, also a member of the 3rd Tunnelling Company, who had married Annie’s sister Ellen Wynne at Coolgardie, WA in 1911.

On 13 November 1917 he was working with his brother-in-law William Woodgate in a dug out, when he was shot in the head by a sniper, he died instantly.

Only a few inches separated the men and Woodgate believed that he would have died instead of his brother-in-law, as he had been standing in the same spot as Kemp a few seconds earlier.

Kalgoorlie Miner, WA – Wednesday 19 December 1917: AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION Perth, Dec. 17. The 371st and 372nd lists of casual ties which have occurred among the West Australian members of the A.I.F. are as follow, men whose rank is not mentioned being private soldiers : — LIST 371 WEST AUSTRALIA. KILLED IN ACTION. Sapper Wm. Cowie Kemp, previously reported wounded; Article Abridged

William Woodgate carried his body back to the base at Nouex-Les-Mines and later helped bury him at Hersin Communal Cemetery Extension: Plot II. F. 2.

Extract from Red Cross Files: “The following are particulars regarding (W.C.) Kemp 1059. William Couie Kemp, 3rd Tunnelling Coy. He enlisted as Boulder City Kalgoorlie Western Australia, Killed in action 13.11.17. and is buried in a French Cemetery of which a portion is reserved for our company, it is about 2 miles from (censored). His grave is personally looked after by me. Re description and personal appearance no occasion for that as its the only one of this name in the company. If any further particulars you require will answer any communication you send to me re his death.” W.G. Woodgate, 4520, France, 29.1.18 3rd Tunnelling Coy”

Photo taken by Chris Donnelly when visiting the grave of William Kemp at Hersin

William was a member of 3ATC from May 1916 until death in November 1917. 3ATC first saw action at Boars Head in the lead up the Fromelles diversion ‘stunt’ of July 1916. The Company was allocated to the First Army and were engaged variously at Laventie-Fauquissart, Givenchy, Loos, Lens, Double Crassiers and Vermelles and other places on the Western Front.

On 27 November 1916 at the ‘Black Watch Sap’, Hill 70, an enemy camouflet (or a premature explosion, depending on different accounts) killed 20 members of the company. The next day 2 more members were killed in the same area by an enemy camouflet. The 22 members of 3ATC were buried in 14 adjacent graves at the Hersin Communal Cemetery Extension.

The Companies major effort was at Hill 70 where they constructed the extensive Hythe Tunnel system.

Sapper William Cowrie Kemp was survived by his wife Annie and his only child James. Annie moved to 33a Hamilton Street, Boulder, in about 1920.

The Sydney Morning Herald - Saturday 23 July 1921:

ENGINEERS' ROLL OF HONOUR The Royal Engineer War Memorial Committee are arranging to deposit a roll of honour of all ranks of the Royal Engineers whose names were officially published as killed in action or died of wounds or disease in the war in the chapel of St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Engineer corps of the dominions, colonial, and Indian armies have been invited to deposit similar rolls of honour in St. Paul's, to be attached to that of the Royal Engineers. This invitation has been accepted in Australia. The roll will be inscribed on vellum and enclosed in a casket of Australian timbers to rest on a slab of Australian marble.

This extract from Tunnellers Roll of Honour included in profile with the kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral, London Photos courtesy of Robin Sanderson, Paris

The West Australian Thursday August 1930: STATE WAR MEMORIAL NAMES FOR TABLETS The names of all West Australian soldiers who gave their lives during the Great War are to be handed down to posterity by means of a series of tablets bearing their names on the walls of a section of the State War Memorial on Mount Eliza.

added by tunnellers.net Annie died on 17 January 1936 at Boulder buried at Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth in the Roman Catholic Area, Section HA, grave 0171. The West Australian of Monday 20 January 1936 carried an article reporting on her funeral.

In 1937 James Boulger Kemp graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia. He served in WW2 as a Staff Sergeant with the 2/5th Australian General Hospital, enlisted on 25 January 1944 and being discharged on 7 March 1946. He named J. Daly as his Next-of-Kin.

In April 1954 a divorce, based on 5 years separation, was granted to Jean Catherine Kemp in Perth.

James Boulger Kemp died on 21 March 1967 at Perth and was buried in the same grave as his mother.

While there are no direct descendants of Sapper William Kemp, he is not forgotten.

His brother-in-law, William Woodgate, survived the war and had three children, and it is here that William Kemp is remembered.

In 2014 his family arranged for William to be memorialised at Honour Avenue, King’s Park, Perth.

Photo taken from the website of the Botanic Garden & Parks Authority © Donna Baldey 2009 / 2015 www.bgpa.wa.gov.au www.tunnellers.net with information provided by Chris Donnelly, great nephew of William Kemp.