Can you help find Will?

Born 29 September 1892 in Naracoorte, SA, Will, was the eighth of thirteen children of Richard Blacksell (1856-1931) and Mary Rubeena Jenkins (1857-1933), who were married at Benyeo, Victoria in 1877. In about 1890, they moved just across the border to Naracoorte, where Richard followed farming and labouring pursuits. Schooling for the children may have also been one of the needs. Seven of their children were born in Victoria and the rest in South Australia.

Will grew up in a large, close-knit family alongside his brothers and sisters:

Will’s mother Mary was a daughter of John Jenkins, who at one time was the proprietor of the Criterion Hotel at Robe. Mary’s obituary noted her accomplished horsemanship - followed the hounds, took part as one of the beaters when coursing after wallabies on the Mosquito Plains and it also noted that in 1867 the Duke of Edinburgh presented her with a locket for her singing as a girl in Robe.

After his schooling, Will worked as a labourer and was active in the local community. In 1912, he was named among players of the Narracoorte Football Association for his involvement in regional sport.

Will had a large extended family, a number of whom also served. His cousins Private James Archibald Blacksell (4986) and Sergeant James Munn (4248) lost their lives in the war.

Will enlisted on 4 August 1915 in Adelaide, and was assigned to the 7th Reinforcements of the 27th Battalion. He was 20 years old, and like so many young men he was swept up by the call to serve. On 12 January 1916, he embarked from Adelaide aboard the HMAT Medic, bound for Egypt. After the Gallipoli campaign and with all the new recruits, the AIF was being reorganised.

In April, Will was transferred to the 32nd Battalion which had been formed in Australia in August. It was composed of two companies from South Australia and two from Western Australia. After Will arrived, they continuing their training and guarding the Suez Canal at Ferry Post until the end of May. Their last posting in Egypt was a few weeks at Moascar. In late June, the battalion sailed from Alexandria aboard the Transylvania and after a week at sea, they landed at Marseilles, France on 23 June 1916.

They were immediately entrained for the journey north. Their trip was in cramped cattle trucks marked “Hommes 40, Chevaux 8” — forty men or eight horses. Yet the mood was light-hearted, and the French civilians turned out in force.

One man wrote:

They were headed to the area of Fleurbaix in northern France which was known as the ‘Nursery Sector’ – a supposedly relatively quiet area where inexperienced Allied troops could learn the harsh realities of Western Front trench warfare against the Germans. But the quiet times did not last long. Training continued with a focus on bayonets and the use of gas masks, assuredly with a greater emphasis given their position near the front.

The 32nd moved to the Front on 14 July and Will was into the trenches for the first time on 16 July, only three weeks after arriving in France.

On the 17th, the 32nd were reconnoitering the trenches and cutting passages through the barbed wire, preparing for an attack, but it was delayed due to the weather. D Company’s Lieutenant Sam Mills’ letter home was optimistic for the coming battle:

The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The 32nd Battalion’s position was on the extreme left flank, with only 100 metres of No Man’s Land to get the German trenches. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 31st Battalion on their right. However, their position made the job more difficult, as not only did they have to protect themselves while advancing, but they also had to block off the Germans on their left, to stop them from coming around behind them.

On the morning of the 18th, A Company and C Company went into the trenches to relieve B and D Companies, who rejoined the next day. The Zero Hour for advancing from their front-line trenches was to be 5.45 PM, but the Germans knew this attack was coming and were well-prepared. They opened a massive artillery bombardment on the Australians at 5.15 PM, causing chaos and many casualties. The charge over the parapet began at 5.53 PM. Will’s A Company and C Company were in the first and second waves to go, B & D were in the third and fourth.

They were successful in the initial assaults and by 6.30 PM were in control of the German’s 1st line system (map Trench B), which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom”.

Source: AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

Unfortunately, with the success of their attack, ‘friendly’ artillery fire caused a large number of casualties because the artillery observers were unable to confirm the position of the Australian gains. They were able to take out a German machine gun in their early advances, but were being “seriously enfiladed” from their left flank.

By 8.30 PM their left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and the 32nd were told that “the trenches were to be held at all costs”.

Source: AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 12

Fighting continued through the night. The Australians made a further charge at the main German line beyond Trench B, but they were low on grenades, there was machine gun fire from behind them from the emplacement at Delangre Farm and they were so far advanced that they were getting shelled by both sides. In the early morning of the 20th, the Germans began a counterattack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into Trench A (map).

Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, the rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to regain that trench and envelop the men of the 32nd. At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties. Having only a few grenades left, the only resistance they could offer was with rifles:

What was left of the 32nd had finally withdrawn by 7.30 AM on the 20th. The initial roll call count was devastating – 71 killed, 375 wounded and 219 missing, including Will. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large quantity of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield.

The final impact was that 228 soldiers of the 32nd Battalion were killed or died from wounds sustained at the battle and, of this, 166 were unidentified.

Lieutenant Sam Mills survived the battle. In his letters home, he recalls the bravery of the men:

Will was among the missing and the family were notified, but no hard information was available from formal channels for an anxious family. In September, the family did get a ‘hopeful’ letter via the family of one of Will’s mates, Private Malcolm A. Stephens (3327), 29th Battalion, who was from the nearby town of Apsley. He had written that he said he had seen Will wounded and being carried back by stretcher bearers.

Nothing formal followed and in January 1917, Will’s sister Bel wrote a heartbreaking letter to Base Records, desperate for news and any word of his fate:

The next news was not until a Red Cross witness statement taken in February 1917 from Corporal Morgan Brown (53) who stated that he was told that Will had been struck and killed by a shell in the initial charge:

This report was apparently not provided to the family as they continued to write for months as they clung to hope. There is a letter a year after the battle still seeing what happened to Will:

Will’s death was felt not just by his family, but also the community. The Naracoorte Herald of 1 September 1916 expressed the community’s grief:

His family placed loving tributes in South Australian newspapers for years after the war.

Will is commemorated at:

The Great War was cruel to the wider Blacksell and Munn families, who suffered multiple losses across cousins and kin:

Will Blacksell’s remains were not recovered, he has no known grave. After the battle, the Germans recovered 250 Australian soldiers and placed them in a burial pit at Pheasant Wood. This grave was discovered in 2008 and since then efforts have been underway to identify these soldiers by DNA testing from family members. As of 2024, 180 of the soldiers have been identified, including 41 of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion.

We welcome all branches of Will’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification. We hope that one day Will will be named and honoured with a known grave.

Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Will’s story.