GUNSHOT wounds to both arms didn’t stop William Fahey from engaging the enemy at Mouquet Farm in Belgium in August 1916.
Private Fahey could still manage to hold his rifle, which was loaded by another wounded man, and between them they held the enemy at bay until ordered back to join the rest of their company.
The effort earned Private Fahey a Military Medal and a few months later a promotion, but his war was punctuated by as many punishments as accolades.
William was the first of John and Margaret Fahey’s six sons to enlist in the Great War.
The Fahey boys were educated at St Patrick’s Primary School in Pakenham and by the time war broke they were scattered across the country in search of work.
William was employed as a labourer when joined up at Tallangatta, near Albury, and often found himself falling foul of his superiors.
He was absent without leave one day in March 1916 and a few weeks later did not attend early morning roll call, losing five days’ pay.
After recovering from his arm wounds in Belgium, William rejoined the 21st Battalion in November 1916 and was promoted to lance-corporal in February 1917, however not long afterwards found himself in hospital again after suffering a gunshot wound to the chest.
In June 1917 William was promoted to temporary corporal and attended a musketry course at Hayling Island, Hampshire. By July he was at Tidworth in Wiltshire and charged with disobeying orders and being drunk, earning a demotion back to private.
He was again charged with disobeying orders in September 1917 when he was found in the town of Ludgershall in Wilshire one night without permission and by 25 September had transferred back to the 21st Battalion.
It seems he may not have liked following orders because on 10 February 1918 he forfeited another day’s pay with conduct ‘to the prejudice of good order and military discipline’ for failing to salute an officer.
By that stage, Williams could be forgiven for being at war with the war – for it had claimed two of his brothers, Patrick and Thomas.
Patrick, the second youngest of the Fahey boys, was born at Pakenham in 1891. When he enlisted at West Maitland in New South Wales he stated his occupation was a wheeler – someone who led pit ponies into a mine. He had blue eyes, fair hair and was about 172 cm tall.
Patrick disembarked at Suez, Egypt, on 5 May 1916 and by July he had transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion at Etaples in France.
Thomas had joined the battalion in March 1916, so perhaps, they had even fought together, or at least met each other before Thomas was killed in November.
Patrick’s left shoulder and buttock were severely wounded by gunshot in August 1916. He was admitted to the County London War Hospital at Epsom, staying until 29 December 1916. He then had furlough before returning to France.
Patrick suffered severe wounds to the abdomen and right thigh on 15 October 1917. He died at the 2nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station in Belgium the day after.
Thomas was also working in the mines and enlisted at Liverpool, New South Wales, aged 25. He was serving with 5th Pioneer Battalion when killed in action on 18 November 1916 in a field in France.
The Fahey brothers were not forgotten by the people of Pakenham; their names were recorded on the St Patrick’s School Honour Board which was unveiled in April 1918.
The war years were not kind on their mother Margaret, who had lost John and married again only to lose her second husband Richard Christopherson in 1916.
William returned in 1918 and married Margaret Lilian Marsden in 1926 and the couple had daughter, Aileen.
William died on 2 April 1956 at Heidelberg and is buried at Fawkner Memorial Park with Margaret.
Coincidentally, William’s brother James, who also served and returned along with another brother Edward, had died on the same date, two years earlier.
* Compiled with research from the Narre Warren and District Family History Group. Next week, the Gazette will focus on the sacrifice of the Black family of Pakenham.
