Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Member of St Philip's Auburn and ex-pupil of both Auburn North and Auburn Public School, 6134 William Ernest Reynolds, 27, was the last Auburn Memorial man to die in battle in the First World War. He was killed in action on 31 August 1918. The three who died after him all died of disease/sickness.
Reynolds was a blacksmith's striker. He was married to Ethel May Reynolds and they lived at 10 Union Road, Auburn. Enlisting on 11 September 1916, Reynolds sailed on the Ascanius on 25 October 1916, arriving at Devonport, United Kingdom, two months later. After several months training in camps on the Salisbury Plain, Reynolds proceeded to France and marched into the 17th Battalion, Second Australian Division, on 6 May 1917.
Five months later, Reynolds received multiple gunshot wounds to the thigh during the Passchendaele offensive in Belgium. He was taken back to a hospital in Brighton, England, where he spent eight months recovering.
Returning to his battalion on 10 May 1918, Reynolds fought for another three and a half months before receiving a shrapnel wound to the neck. He died at a casualty clearing station on 31 August 1918. Reynolds had been in the AIF for nearly two years, with his front-line service totalling nine months.
Reynolds was buried in the Suzanne Military Cemetery No. 3, on the north side of the river Somme. This cemetery is the furthest east of the cemeteries of the Somme containing Auburn Memorial men. It contains 139 burials, including 26 Australians. All bar one of the 26 Australians were killed in the period of August-September 1918.
William Reynolds is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- St Philip's Anglican Church Auburn First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn North Public School Great War Roll of Honor
- Auburn Boys Public School Great War Honour Roll
- Auburn Public School First World War Honour Roll
- NSW Government Railways & Tramways First World War Roll of Honour, Central Station
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
