William Slade Vincent

A Summary of His Life

To understand William’s early life, it is important to understand the influences he had in his life from birth.

William Slade Vincent Junior was born in London after the marriage of his parent’s Major William Slade Vincent and Emily Alice Buzzard (nee Millar). (The Millar family is documented in the “Life and Times of Millar Buzzard” and should be read to lay the foundation of William’s ancestors from both Buzzard and Millar families.)

He lived in England and Europe after his birth and when nearly 6 years of age he and his family moved to Adelaide, S.A. in 1906. Details about his life after his birth until the start of his new life in Adelaide are unclear and only anecdotal accounts exist.

His earlier schooling is also uncertain, but in 1910 he attended the prestigious St. Peter’s College, Adelaide until 1915. In the September of that year he, his mother, sisters and stepsisters, travelled back to England from Australia.

He enlisted in the Army (at aged 16, having lied about his age) and his mother signed the Application for Appointment to a Temporary Commission in the British Regular Army. It was not uncommon for a young Australian to serve in the British Army, and not the Australian Army, given the close family links with Great Britain. This bond between Australia and Britain was so strong that all passenger records described Australian passengers as “British” by nationality, even after Federation.

William served in the Army from 1915 and was on the army list until removed from it in 1931.

Between 1915 and 1917 he saw action in France and Belgium as a member of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment and won a Military Cross for his bravery in action. Whilst in France he developed “trench feet” and was repatriated to England. After some treatment, he was attached to the Royal Flying Corp in 1918, but only served for a short time with that service. In 1919 he was retired from the army, on half pay due to ill health, and was repatriated to Australia.

Between 1922 and 1924, he could be found on various stations (large farms), in the outback of New South Wales (N.S.W.), and he eventually ended up in Melbourne, Victoria (Vic.). He returned to England in 1925, married in the same year, and continued to live in England until 1930.

Married life obviously didn’t suit William as he returned, without his wife, to W.A. in 1930, living around the Kalgoorlie and other goldmining towns in the area. He then moved to Fremantle W.A. and his life started spiralling out of control. He spent time in various prisons in W.A. and in his final days, he was committed to a Mental Institution where he died in 1934 at the age of 35. He was buried alongside his half-brother (Millar Buzzard), the eldest child from his mother’s first marriage to Alfred Ernest Buzzard.

Some may say he led a “colourful” life and was a “rascal” at times, but like so many others of his era, he was probably suffering from P.S.T.D. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) after the horrors he experienced at such a young age in the trenches of France and Belgium in World War 1.