Name: William Edgar Gavel Rank: Corporal Service Number: NX52469 Service: 2/19th Battalion, Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF) Date of Birth: May 4, 1918 Place of Birth: Leeton, New South Wales, Australia Date of Enlistment: July 3, 1940 Place of Enlistment: Paddington, New South Wales, Australia Address at Enlistment: Leeton, New South Wales, Australia Age at Enlistment: 21 Occupation: Farm hand Marital Status: Single Religion: Church of England Date of Death: November 27, 1943 Age: 25 Cemetery: Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Kanchanaburi, Thailand Grave: Section 1, Row K, Grave 62 William Edgar Gavel was the son of Andrew Allen Gavel, a share farmer and irrigation engineer (1884-1959), and Mary Victoria (Fanny) Wittick (1883-1953). His parents lived in Leeton, and later moved to Erskineville near Newtown, a suburb of Sydney, NSW, Australia’s inner west. He was the brother of Walter Stillman Gavel (1907-1907), Irene May Gavel 9De Mamiel] (1910-1979), Florence Margaret Gavel [Heritage] (1919-1976), Andrew Allen Gavel (1911-1920), Gladys E. Gavel (d. 1924), Sidney Roy Gavel (1913-1976), and Daphne Nita Gavel [Shoemark] (1921-2003). His brother Sidney Roy Gavel (1913–1976) also served in WWII with an Australian Army Transport Platoon between 1942 and 1946. William Edgar Gavel is the grandson of William Stillman Gavel (1855-1934) and Margaret (Fisher) Gavel (1860-1946) of Australia, and the great-grand son of Andrew Stillman Gavel, born in Gavelton, Yarmouth Co., NS. (Wartime Connections from Gavelton, NS in Australia) William enlisted in the army with the 56th Battalion (Riverina Regiment) of the Australian Imperial Force in May of 1940 (Service 521593). He enlisted to serve in overseas forces on July 3, 1940, and transferred and served with the 2/19th Battalion on July 25, 1940. He was admitted to hospital with influenza on August 16, 1940, and was discharged from hospital September 29, 1940. In February 1941, with the threat of an impending war with Japan, Australia dispatched the Eighth Division, four RAAF squadrons and eight warships to Singapore and Malaya. Australian pilots were some of the first to engage with the Japanese when the Imperial Army invaded Malaya on December 8, 1941. William was granted pre-embarkation leave December 17-28, 1940. On February 2, 1941, he embarked on the His Majesty’s Troopship (HMT) Queen Mary in Sydney, Australia, and disembarked February 18, 1941, in Singapore. William served a full year with the army in Malaya and Singapore and was taken prisoner on February 16, 1942. Singapore had fallen to the Japanese the day before on February 15, 1942. William was held as a prisoner of war (POW) from February 1942 until his death in November 1943. Corporal William Gavel died of illness (amoeboid dysentery) while a POW at No. 4 Camp Kanburi at Kanchanaburi in Thailand. He was interred at the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Thailand. William is also remembered on Panel 43 of the Australian War Memorial in Campbell, Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Sources: Commonwealth War Grave Commission findagrave