Mayne, Willis Grey

www.awm.gov.au/database

Willis was a 23 year old stationhand when he enlisted in the 9 Machine Gun Company (May 1916)
Ship Name: HMAT Benalla
Ship Number: A24
Date of Embarkation: 1/05/1916
Place of Embarkation: Sydney

He recieved his MM: 'On September 29th west of Bony, during the operaton of the 11th A.I. Brigade, this N.C.O. was in charge of his Section transport. When the smoke or the action lifted he came under heavy machine gun fire at close range, and three of his mules were immediately shot down. Getting his drivers together he then rushed in and endeavoured to save his one remaining mule, which he succeeded in getting away to cover, but it was killed very soon after. He went back to his No. 1 limber where the animals had been destroyed, collected the gun gear and eventually managed to transfer it to his No.2 limber, enabling his gun team to continue the advance.

His devotion to his animals and the determination with which he set about the task so that the advance of his section should not be stopped, has won for him the highest admiration of his comrades.'

Died from Drowning

The Longreach Leader Friday 3 February 1928
DEATH OF MR W.G. MAYNE
INTERESTING CAREER CLOSED BY
UNFORTUNATE DROWNING ACCIDENT.
A correspondent writes. –
The funeral of Mr. Willis Grey Mayne, late overseer on Mount Cornish Station, and who was drowned while attempting to swim an outer channel of the flooded Cornish Creek on the 23rd December took place in Muttaburra on Friday, 26th December, the Service being conducted by the Rev. J. Stuart Roach, of St. Andrew’s Bush Brotherhood.
The late Mr. Mayne was 36 years of age and was the youngest son of the late W.C. H. Mayne and. Mrs. Mayne of “Black Springs” Station and Napier , Street, Tamworth, N.S.W. and grandson of the late Captain George Grey Mayne of Belfast, Ireland.
Mr. Willis Mayne came to his uncle Mr. C.V. Seaton, Manager of Mount Cornish Station in 1913, and remained there until the time of his death, with the exception of the period he was at the war. He enlisted in 1916 in the 9th Machine Gun Section, 3rd Division, and was awarded the Military Medal at Villers Brettoneux. After the cessation of hostilities he returned to Australia on the troopship “Themistocles” and when about 400 miles out from Capetown, in a dense fog, the ‘Themistocles” ran into and sank another big vessel. The Themistocles was badly damaged and the accident was described at the time as a merciful escape from a second “Birkenhead” disaster, there being over 1000 troops on board.
Mount Cornish Station has just passed through one of the biggest droughts on record, and it was the irony of fate that Mr. Mayne, after superintending the artificial feeding of 70,000 sheep and fighting the drought for so long, should lose his life endeavouring to rescue sheep from floodwaters.
The late Mr. Mayne will be missed by a very large, circle of friends in the Muttaburra and Aramac Districts and the news of his death, reaching them on Xmas Eve, cast a gloom over the usual Christmas festivities.
[Source: Death of Mr. W. G. Mayne. (1928, February 3). The Longreach Leader (Qld.: 1923 – 1954), p. 24. Retrieved September 18, 2013, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37214025]