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Private William Walter Jessup

William Walter Jessup was born on 16 April 1884 in West Scottsdale, one of 11 children.  The Jessups were staunch members of the Salvation Army and his maternal grandfather had been a Methodist preacher, and a descendant of one of the early Wesleyan preachers in Shrewsbury, England.  As a young man, Will went to New Zealand with his brother Fred and sister Mary where he spent several years. Fred and Mary both married and remained in New Zealand.

With the announcement of the formation of Tasmanian-specific 40th Battalion on 18 March 1916, there was a concerted recruitment campaign across the State to reach the quota of 1000 men, with several visits to the North East in early 1916.

Will enlisted in February 1916. He was a newly married 31-year-old farmer with an infant son. His wife, Florrie, had two brothers already serving - Bernard (aged 22) had joined in August 1914 and fought at Gallipoli, and Sidney (aged 21) had enlisted in March 1916. Will’s cousin Roy Harris, also served at Gallipoli, having enlisted underage in June 1915. Another cousin Granville Campbell (killed in action in June 1917) had enlisted in January 1916.

Will was wounded in action in France on 22 October and admitted to the 4th AFA (Army First Aid) with ‘gunshot wounds to his right thigh and buttock, compound fracture of left arm and right foot’, and transferred to the 3rd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station (CCCS) at Lijssentheok. In the early years of World War 1(WW1), a soldier who suffered a compound fracture of the femur (thigh bone) would endure incredible pain and a high probability of infection during extraction from the battlefield.

Pte Jessup's story was researched by his great-great niece, Terese Smith, whose pilgrimage to his grave took place on 17 April 2023, just one day after the 139th anniversary of his birth.

Read Private William Jessup's story