William Charles Cheeseman

William Charles Cheeseman (shown in the photo on the left, which was taken in France in 1917) was the eighth child of Alfred John and Jane Elizabeth Cheeseman (nee Wright). He was born in Carngham in Victoria in 1883 and married Jane Jennifer Anderson at the nearby township of Beaufort in 1904. Jane or 'Jinny' as she was known, had been born at Burrumbeet in Victoria in 1885, the daughter of John Anderson, a farmer, and Elizabeth Tapp.

After their marriage William and Jinny lived at Beaufort where William worked as a farrier and the couple had their three children: Olive Jane (1906-1982), Ivan William (1908-1977) and Dulcie Beryl (1910- ).

The children are shown with their parents in the photo on the right which was taken not long after William enlisted for service in the First AIF on 17 March 1916.

William's enlistment papers indicate that he was then 33 years old and had served for more than four years in the local militia (the Victorian Rangers). He was allocated to the reinforcements for the 39th Battalion and embarked from Melbourne on the HMATS ACCANIUS on 27 May 1916. He disembarked at Plymouth in England on the 18 July and trained with the 39th Battalion in England before being posted to the 10th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery which would serve with the 40th Battalion in France.

William and his unit proceeded to France on 22 November 1916. While there he rose to the rank of Lieutenant and eventually commanded the trench mortar battery. On 11 January 1918 he was awarded the Meritorius Service Medal (MSM) for 'valuable services rendered to the the armies in the field'. During this time William's younger brother, Sergeant Ralph Cheeseman, served with the 57th Battalion. One of their cousins, Walter Chibnall, who also served in the 10th Light Trench Mortar Battery, was killed in action at Passchendaele on 17 October 1917. A nephew of William's, his older sister's son Bill Haggis, also joined the unit in 1918 and served as William's batman (see the photo below).

Like many of his colleagues, William remained in England for a good time after the war ended in November 1918. He spent three months of this time on paid leave in Devon where he helped out on the farm of his brother Ralph's father-in-law, Thomas Palmer of Newington. William was eventually recalled from leave and sailed for Australia on the SS NORMAN on 4 July 1919. He disembarked at Melbourne and was discharged from the Army on 2 October 1919. His great adventure was finally over.

10 Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery taken in France sometime between 1 March 1918
(when William was promoted to Lieutenant and assumed command of the unit), and the end of the First World War.
William is seated in the centre of the second row. Directly behind him to his right is his nephew, Bill Haggis,
who served as his batman.

After his discharge from the Army, William farmed a block of land, acquired under the soldier settlement scheme, in the district of Trawalla near Beaufort. According to Hugh Anderson's The Flowers of the Field: A History of the Ripon Shire, William 'was growing oats and running sheep on 303 acres. Sixty acres were swamp, but 180 acres had been cultivated'. Anderson added that like many other men in the district, William found making a living from the small farm difficult: 'Cheeseman's complaint [in evidence to the Royal Commission into the Soldier Settlement Scheme] was insufficient land to work. During his first year (1922) he had made Ł800 from hay and wheat and his worst year was 1924 when he cleared only Ł400. Ł200 pounds had been repaid to the Closer Settlement Board in that time, leaving little money with which to make improvements and support a family of four' (pp. 157-8).

During this time, the family maintained a house in Beaufort at which William's brother, Alfred Cheeseman and his wife Alice Maud and their family, would occasionally spend the weekend, going to whatever entertainment that was on in the town. According to Alice's eldest daughter Winnie Stafford (nee Cheeseman), her parents 'loved these weekends, there was always so much fun at Bill and Jinny's, they had three children, just a small house, but Auntie Jinny could make a comfortable bed on the floor and she was a wonderful cook'.

William Charles Cheeseman died at Ballarat on 15 January 1951. His wife Jane died of bronchopneumonia at Ballarat on 4 September 1969. Her death certificate, which was informed by her eldest daughter, Olive Rodgers, states that she was 84 years old and was then residing at 102 Ascot Street South in Ballarat. She was buried at the Ballarat New Cemetery on the day after her death.

What of William and Jane's children? Irene Restall believes that Olive married Lionel Symons (1898-1951) in 1926 and that they had at least one child: Dulcie May Symons (c1925-1928). If this was the case then, as noted above, she must have re-married after her first husband's death in 1951. Ivan married Winifred Mary O'Laughlin (1909-1979) and lived for a time at Berwick near Dandenong in Victoria. They had at least one son. We believe that Dulcie married Theodore William Allender (1905-1971) in 1931 but know nothing else of her life.

Image Sources:
Cpl William Charles Cheeseman and William and Jinny and family, private collection.
10th Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery in France 1918, courtesy of Christina ('Teen') Bainbridge nee Cheeseman.

William Charles Cheeseman (1883-1951)