Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Born in Summer Hill in Sydney, William Stanley Hewett was a fireman with the NSW Railways and a member of the Auburn Methodist Church. He he enlisted at the RAS Showgrounds, Moore Park, on 11 July 1916. He declared his age as ’24 years 11 mths’.
Private Hewett served a standard three-months training in Australia before embarking on the Ceramic in October 1916, along with four other Auburn Memorial men: William Heard, William Horsman, Theodore McCooey and Fredrick Meads. Arriving in Plymouth, United Kingdom, in November 1916, Hewett crossed to France and was taken on strength of the 13th Battalion on 2 January 1917.
Hewett had a long and fine record of service. He was in the AIF for just over two years and on the Western Front for 19 months, surviving the battles of Bullecourt, Messines Ridge, Passchandaele and the early part of the Second Battle of the Somme. In that time he suffered no wounds and had only a couple of weeks out of the line in military hospitals in France (Australian General Hospital at Rouen – Bronchitis and Scabies).
Hewett has only a minor crime on his service record, ‘loss of PH helmet by neglect’, but this was out of character and Hewett was later promoted to corporal. Hewett also received a very satisfactory report, 11th Intelligence Course, First Anzac School. Corporal Hewett was killed on 6 August 1918 during the Australian advance up the valley of the Somme.
His parents, who had been living at 57 Auburn Road in Auburn when their son enlisted, chose the following epitaph for his grave in the Adelaide Cemetery at Villers-Bretonneux: IN LOVING MEMORY OF THE DEAR SON OF F.G. & L.M. HEWETT OF SYDNEY
Hewett’s name is misspelt Hewitt on the Auburn War Memorial but his name is correct on the 1914-1918 Honour Roll in the Auburn Methodist Church. Hewitt’s brother-in-law, 2556 Rupert Edward Eldridge, is also on the Auburn Methodist Church Honour Roll. He survived the war.
Unfortunately, Hewett’s mother, Mary, did not receive her son's medals. In 1940, after her husband had died, she filed a statutory declaration regarding this, but Base Records office replied that they were sent to the father by registered mail in 1923.
William Hewett is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Methodist Church First World War Honour Roll
- Walter Thompson Masonic Schools First World War Memorial, Baulkham Hills
- NSW Government Railways & Tramways First World War Honour Roll, Central Station
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal
