Babington, William Hume 'Bill' 1917-2013

Title

Babington, William Hume 'Bill' 1917-2013

Description

Bill Babington and Jack Bates were great mates. They both went to the Morven Public school together and every Anzac day Jack travelled down to Culcairn to march with his old mate Bill. Jack died in 2009 at Canberra.
Bill Babington fought at Tobruk and El Alamein: 'We had a thousand artillery guns firing. You couldn't hear someone talk, there was that much noise going on. There was continuous bombing and shelling' Bill Babington was a gunner and due to the amount of constant noise he lost a good deal of his hearing.

"British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was not a popular man when Australian troops saw him in North Africa in 1942. They saw how Churchill walked past the diggers during his visit. Churchill marched through us and our officer said:'three cheers for Winston Churchill' and there wasn't one that said hooray".
The disenchantment was based on the Australians learning of the bombing of Darwin and being more concerned about that than continuing to fight for the British Empire in North Africa. Nevertheless, the diggers went through the second battle of El Alamein in late 1942. The Second Battle of El Alamein took place over 13 days from 23 October – 4 November 1942 and the Allies' victory marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War.

This second article was written for the local paper ‘The Chronicle’ also on Anzac Day in the late 1990’s.
This is the Bust that was referred to in the newspaper article on Bill Babington and Jack Bates Anzac Day 2007. After Cyril Brown passed away the Bust was passed over to Bill Babington.
The names on the Bust are….. D. Bradshaw, Mervyn Brown, A. Suckling, S. Bowler, C. Hall, Bill Babington, - Ross, P.S. Edge, H. Smith, Jack Bates, A. Threadbold, N. Domale, P. Sedge, J. Culhane, B. Hughe, C. Taylor. B. Murphy, R.V. Paton, W.J. Clarke, H. Nelson, E.M. McKinley, S.Reed. A.H. Walsh, A.R. Lane.

Clipping from the 'Border Mail' Anzac Day 2007.
Interview with Bill Babington and his mate, Jack Bates.
Clipping from The Chronicle' also on Anzac Day in the late 1990s

Contributor

Patricia Payne

Relation

Format

pdf; jpg

Files

Babington, William Hume (Bill) and The Bust.jpg

Tags

Citation

“Babington, William Hume 'Bill' 1917-2013,” Mary Wade Family History Association Inc., accessed December 18, 2024, https://www.marywadefamily.org/items/show/169.