Early years
William Ambrose Cull was born in Sandford, Victoria on 31 July 1894. A coachbuilder, he enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in 1915.
Military career
Cull joined the 71st Ballarat Regiment and trained as an officer. Too young for command in active service, he resigned his commission to enlist with 6th Brigade AIF, 23rd Battalion. They landed at Gallipoli in August 1915.
His daring as a scout in ‘no man’s land’ earned him the title ‘Hot Spur of the 23rd’. When wounded by a Turkish bomb blast, he recovered in Malta before dispatch to the Western Front.
William saw bitter fighting on the Somme. In February 1917 he lead a futile attack on Malt Trench near Warlencourt. He faced a barrage of machine gun fire and grenades, with one landing at his feet and blasting away his hip. Taken prisoner and gravely injured, he endured brutal treatment and solitary confinement. In 1918 he was finally transferred to Switzerland and repatriated to Australia.
His 1918 memoir At All Costs remains one of the few published accounts of a First World War prisoner of war (POW) in Germany. Allen and Unwin published an edited version in 2011 as Both Sides of the Wire.
Despite permanent disability he was active in recruitment. He was a representative on the Repatriation Commission Board and the RSL Executive. He also stood for the National Party in the 1919 Albert Park by-election.
Personal life
In 1920 he married Doris Whitelaw and in 1923 they had a daughter, Elsa. He later became Managing Editor of the Shepperton Advertiser, until poor health forced retirement.
Death
He died on 29 July 1939 aged 45 years, at an 80th birthday for his mother. He was responding to the toast when he collapsed.
The Last Post sounded as they laid him to rest at Coburg Cemetery. He is buried with his father John Francis, baby niece Freda and mother Janet.
Bibliography
Adapted from material supplied by historian Dr Jan Penney, GMCT Trust member 2010-2020, and by the Friends of Coburg Cemetery Inc.
The AIF Project (n.d.) William Ambrose Cull, University of New South Wales [website]
Australian War Memorial (n.d.) Captain Cull, William Ambrose [website]
Cull W A (1918) Both Sides of the Wire, Allen & Unwin
Keegan J (1998) The First World War, A. Knopf
Moorhouse G (1992) Hells Foundations: A Social History of the Town of Bury in the Aftermath of the Gallipoli Campaign, Henry Holt & Co
National Archives of Australia (n.d.) Captain William Ambrose Cull 1916, Discovering Anzacs [website]
Image source
Image from National Archives of Australia.
