William Roy Elwin Croucher (1894-1916)
Dates
Birth: 28 September 1894 Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia
Father: John William Croucher 1869-1947
Mother: Ellenor Sarah Davis c1866-1933
Christening: Unknown
Marriage: Believed not married
Death: 19 July 1916 Fromelles, Departement du Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Record: Panel 10, V.C. Corner, Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, Departement du Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Children
None known
Notes
Entry in Ancestry Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 for William R E Croucher born in 1994 in Leichhardt, New South Wales, parents John W and Ellenr S Croucher.
Entry in Ancestry Australia, WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 for William Roy Elwin Croucher aged 20, born in Leichhardt, New South Wales, mother Eleanor Sarah Croucher, enlisted as 3272 at Liverpool, New South Wales.
Entry in Find a Grave for Pvt William Roy Elwin Croucher died 19 July 1916, listed on Panel 10, V.C. Corner, Australian Cemetery Memorial, Fromelles, Departement du Nord, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.
There are eight entries in Ancestry Public Member Trees adding the date of birth as 28 September 1894 and parents as John William Croucher and Ellenor Sarah Davies.
Entry in Australian War Memorial for William Roy Elwin Croucher panel 157.
Entry in A Street Near You for Private William Roy Elwin Croucher, Son of John William and Ellinor Sarah Croucher, of Myall St., Merrylands, New South Wales. Native of Leichhardt. Died: Wednesday 19 July 1916 (aged 21) in France.
Entry in The Syney Morning Herald Friday October 5 1917 "Killed (Previously Reporting Wounded and Missing) [...] Wm(William) Roy Elwin Croucher, Tempe, 19/7/16".
The following was at http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/phaydrew/web/crou-bap.html
SUB-SECTION II G6 WILLIAM [ROY] ELWIN CROUCHER, packer [p13]
William was born on the 28 Sept 1894 in Leichhardt and died 19 Jul 1916 in France.
Graham Croucher writes the following notes on William in his visual family history.
William joined the army on July 23 1915 at Liverpool NSW. His Regimental Number was 3272 and his rank was Private. At the time his parents were living at Elsinor 4 Quarry Street Tempe NSW.
On January 6, 1916 he was Taken on Strength at Tel-el-Kebir. On February 13, 1916 he was transferred to 53rd Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir,and on February 14, 1916 he was Taken on Strength of 53rd Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir. He embarked at Alexandria on Royal George to join the British Expeditionary Forces disembarking at Marseilles France on June 28 1916. He was declared Wounded and Missing in France on July 19 1916, subsequently being declared Killed in Action. His grave is at V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Fromelles, France, along with 409 others.
Fromelles is a village and commune in the Department of Nord, nine miles West of Lille. It is the terminus of a light railway from Don-Sainghin; the nearest important railway station is Armentieres. The village was captured by French cavalry and the 2nd Royal Iris on the 17 October, 1914, but when trench warfare began it was behind German lines.
V.C. Corner was the name given to the crossing of the Rue Delvas and the Rue du Bois, two miles North-West from Fromelles village and within the British lines; but the Cemetery is nearly half-way along the Rue Delvas towards Fromelles.
On the morning of the 19th July 1916, after a preliminary bombardment, the 5th Australian and 61st (South Midland) Divisions undertook what is officially known as the Attack at Fromelles, advancing from the Rue Tilleloy near Picantin. The 61st Division attack failed in the end, with the loss of 1313 officers and men out of 3410 who took part in it. The Australian left and centre reached the German trenches and held their second line during the day and night, but the right was held off by a fierce machine-gun barrage and only reached the front line in isolated groups. The action was broken off on the morning of the 20th, after the 5th Australian Division had lost over 5000 Officers and men. It wads (sic) the first serious engagement of the Australian forces in France, and the only one which achieved no success; but the losses alone would prove that no other Division could have fought for success more heroically.
V.C. Corner Cemetery was made after the Armistice. It contains the graves of 410 Australian soldiers who fell in the Attack at Fromelles and whose bodies were found on the battlefield, but the identification of even a single body proved to be impossible. It was therefore decided not to mark the individual graves, but to record on a screen wall the names of all the 1298 Australian soldiers who fell in the engagement and whose graves were not known. Of these, 314 belonged to the 60th Battalion, 241 to the 59th, 190 to the 53rd, 163 to the 32nd, 373 to other Infantry Battalions, 11 to the Australian Machine Gun Corps, and 6 to the Engineers.
The cemetery therefore consists of a grass lawn, enclosed by borders of flowering shrubs, a rubble wall and hedge. On the further side of the road is a stone terrace, on which the Cross stands, flanked by two buildings; and behind the Cross is the screen wall bearing the names with the inscription: “In honour of 410 unknown Australian soldiers here buried, who were among the following 1299 Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men of the Australian Imperial Force, killed in the Attack at Fromelles, July 19th and 20th, 1916.”
The cemetery is planted with trees. The surrounding countryside is open farming land, rising slightly to the Aubers Ridge on the East.
The Register records particulars of 1298 Australian dead, the grave of one soldier whose name appears on the Memorial, having been found subsequently.
Tom Croucher in Australia states that John William Croucher's "first son, William (but known as Roy), was killed in France in WW1".
Leichhardt is 5 miles WSW of Sydney and Granville 12 miles west of Sydney
Relationship
William Roy Elwin Croucher was the third great grandson of George Croucher.
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