Our Anzac heroes - Part VII

We remember our country’s Anzac heroes as Albany counts down to this year’s centenary commemoration of the departure of convoys from King George Sound.

When volunteers were called for at the outbreak of the Great War, the impact upon small rural communities was immense.

Young men who enlisted from these areas were not only known to each other, they were close mates, often through familial bonds.

The settlement of Tenterden, a small siding on the Great Southern Railway near Cranbrook was no exception.

Of seven mates who enlisted, only two returned.

Private William Albert Betts, better known as Willie, served with the 10th Light Horse Regiment.

Born in York, his family were among some of the earliest settlers of the State. Willie’s great grandfather had arrived in the Swan River Colony as part of Thomas Peel’s ambitious but disordered colonisation scheme.

Taking up land at Guildford to establish the property Turtle Creek, the Betts family forged lasting links to the agricultural industry, with subsequent generations operating successful farming businesses at Tenterden and Dangin.

Willie was working on his father’s property Ronaldshaw at Tenterden when he enlisted in Albany in November 1915. In anticipation of securing a place in the 10th LHR, he proudly but humbly described himself as a good horseman, bushman and rifleman.

Unsuccessful in the first intake, Willie stayed in Perth at his grandfather’s farm at Guildford.

His patience would be rewarded with a posting to the 2nd Reinforcements of the 10th LHR.

He embarked at Fremantle on HMAT Itonius in February 1915 and proceeded to Egypt to join the many Australians training at Abbasich and Mena Camps.

Willie was transported to the Gallipoli peninsular where he took part in an operation at Quinn’s Post.

The event would be cataclysmic in changing the course of his life.

The shrapnel wounds received to his shoulder and the loss of his right eye would cause immeasurable and chronic suffering for the rest of his life. Exhibiting the spirit for which our ANZACs are renown, his physical incapacitation and emotional trauma did not stop him from attempting to re-enlist, or in later years winning trophies for golf.

Deemed medically unfit for any further participation in the war, Willie was repatriated back to Australia and discharged.

Granted a soldier settlement landholding at Dangin, he became increasing despondent and progressively reclusive, withdrawing from family and society.

He took solace in re-educating himself, immersing himself in literary classics.

A favourite escape on the property was a thatched tea-tree bush hut with its very own pet carpet snake.

Willie retired to Subiaco, becoming a frequent visitor to his local library and was recognised in the suburb for the pork pie hat he wore. He is remembered by his family with love and affection, as a quiet, gentle and unassuming man with a warm sense of humour.

He died in 1955 aged 65 years and is buried at Karrakatta.

Albany woman Dixie Betts is Willie’s youngest granddaughter.

Her father, after whom she was named, was the youngest of Willie’s six children.

Dixie said although she was a toddler when Willie passed away, her earliest childhood memories were of their brief time together.

“Every so often Mum and Dad used to come down to Perth from the farm for a big shop and Pa used to babysit me,” she said.

“I vividly remember sitting out on a veranda in Subiaco in the sun and he would be in his wicker chair and I would sit down beside him.

“He used to roll his own cigarettes from a tobacco tin and would put pennies in an old empty tin to make a rattle and that would be my toy … that has always stuck in my mind.”

Dixie said she cherished her earliest childhood memories of her late grandfather, who she described as a “true gentleman” and “well-read, humble man.”

“He is and always has been our quiet hero,” she said.

“We all felt very honoured to be his grandchildren and carry a great sadness that he is no longer here. He is remembered by all of us — so much so that the family had a book written about him titled Just When the Moon Went Down, which is a line from one of his letters written home when he was convalescing in hospital after being wounded in the trenches and losing his eye at Quinn’s Post.”

Dixie said she treasures a box of her grandfather’s belongings, including leather-bound books, letters and a razor he took to war.