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William LOGAN #3509, Q19966

By Marg Powel & Des Crump | 11 December 2017

Service record, William Logan

Extract from AIF service record for William Logan, National Archives of Australia

Indigenous Australian, William LOGAN, Depot Battalion

William Logan was born in Cairns, Queensland in 1894. When he volunteered to serve with the first AIF in July 1917 he was employed as a stockman; he named his friend Thomas Ellis as his next of kin.

Logan came to the training camp at Lytton, near Brisbane, assigned to No 1 Depot Company while he undertook basic training. In October 1917 he was admitted to hospital for gonorrhoea, which was a common complaint among young soldiers at this time. Unfortunately for Willie Logan the complaint persisted and he remained in camp longer than most recruits.

Assigned to the 1st Reinforcements Egypt, then 3rd Reinforcements Queensland, and finally 4th Reinforcements Queensland, Logan was still not considered fit for service and after his case was put before a Medical Board it was decided that he should be discharged from the Army.

10 months after volunteering, Willie Logan was medically discharged, 8 May 1918.

Read more ...

  • SERVICE RECORD:  LOGAN, William
  • 'Many served: AIF Aborigines', Reveille, 30 November 1931, p.22
  • Scarlett, Philippa. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander volunteers for the AIF: the Indigenous response to World War One. Fourth edition, Indigenous Histories, Macquarie, ACT, 2018
  • One of the soldiers featured in SLQ’s HistoryPin Collection
  • Queensland’s Indigenous Servicemen [oral history]

The information in this blog post has been researched by State Library staff and volunteers, it is based on available information at this time. If you have more information that you would like to share or further research uncovers new findings, this post will be updated.

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