William Slade Vincent

Epilogue

Amongst William’s parents, siblings and half-siblings, Millar Buzzard was the first to die. As mentioned, he died in Moora on 12th July 1920, by a shooting accident on his property. His wife Margaret Mary was to die on 12th March 1980 and is buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth, W.A.

Alys Buzzard, who married Charles Kane-White in 1916, died on 13th April 1937, in England, at the age of 44 and is burried together with her husband (died 6th September 1929) and daughter Elizabeth Catherine (died 10th October 1989) in the Greenwich Cemetery, London.

Major William Slade Vincent, died on 2nd September 1946, and was cremated and interned in the Garden of Remembrance of the Fawkner Memorial Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Emily Alice Millar died on 21st July 1950 and was cremated and interned with her husband.

Vera, who married John Russell Cuthill in 1915, died in Ararat, Victoria on 5th May 1971 at the age of 83. She was also cremated and interned in the Garden of Remembrance of the Fawkner Memorial Park. John Russell Cuthill died in Edinburgh, Scotland on 27th December 1930 and his gravesite is unknown.

Marjorie, died on 3rd February 1978 was cremated and ashes buried on the family plot at Centennial Park Cemetery, Adelaide. A headstone inscription was also placed at the North Road Cemetery, Adelaide, on the grave of her husband Malcolm Douglas Tweedie who she had married in 1911 and who died on 25th December 1935.

Barbara Vincent, who married Humphrey John Curnow Millett on 21st October 1921, in Bombay, India was to pass away on 12th February 1985, in Chagford, Newton Abbot, Devonshire, England. She was laid to rest in the cemetery of St. Michael the Archangel in Chagford, Devon. Her husband joined her two years later when he died on 24th March 1987.

And finally, Joan Vincent passed away on 9th February 1991 at Taunton Deane, Somerset, England and was cremated there and her ashes buried in the local cemetery. Her husband, Richard Edward Vining, died on 26th June 1952 and is buried in the Yeovil Cemetery, Somerset.

William’s life was full of ups and downs from the time he left school in Adelaide in 1915 through until his death in 1934. As a teenager he was to experience many incidents that would shape him into the man he was. By reading the file on William from the British Archives on his war service and the file maintained by the Repatriation Dept. in Australia, I had the impression that, although William caused angst to a lot of people, he was in the grips of severe alcohol dependency and could not control it. He also had to struggle with the problems caused by “trench feet” which plagued him from the age of seventeen. He was not a violent man and just sought to survive, as best he could. If William had fought in a modern war, he may have received the compassion and support which was lacking in the early part of the 20th century.

His life, in some ways, was analogous to my own father who experienced his own nightmares in WW2. He was also “partial to the drink”, as were a lot of ex-servicemen from both world wars, and toward the end of his life my father wrote an autobiography entitled “A Gentleman and a Rascal”. I see William too, as a “Gentleman and a Rascal”.

To all those past, present and to the future generations of young men and women who join the military to serve their country, we owe them a debt of gratitude that will never be extinguished.