BAWDEN, WILLIAM IN GROUP PHOTO
B/W Print. A group of eight men and five women, sitting kneeling and standing around William Bawden. The men are all in suits, shirts and ties and hats; the women are wearing long-sleeved summer outfits and large brimmed hats. The injured William Bawden is in army uniform with a patch over his right eye. The group is on rough grass under overhanging trees.
William Gilbert Harvey Bawden was born in Fremantle in 1897, the eldest of six children of William and Emma Bawden of 9 Hampton Road, Fremantle. He enlisted, aged 16. As a Corporal of the 44th Battalion, 11th Brigade Australian Division, Anzac Corps he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Star of Vermeil in 1917, for his patrol work under heavy fire and for rescuing wounded workers from a factory which was being shelled. There he was blinded by a fragment of shell. After recovering from his wounds he returned to Western Australia. Realising that he needed special training to overcome his handicap he went back to England in 1921 and, like many Australian war-blinded men he was admitted to St Dunstan's. There he trained and qualified as a 'medical electrician' and chartered masseur. He established a practice in Ealing, where he remained for the rest of his life and, over a long period, gave freely of his services to several local hospitals and to Aftercare Sports (sports for those no longer staying at St Dunstan's hostel). Despite his disability he was an all round sportsman, excelling in rowing and swimming, in which he competed against a police team and the British Olympic Swimming team. In December 1922 he married Laura Mabel Jenkins (to whom he referred as 'Mab', and who his family called 'Madge') who was believed to have been his nurse. In 1925 he was elected to the Massage Advisory Committee. In early 1929 he suffered problems relating to his wounded eye and was hospitalised for a month. In April the problem recurred and he was readmitted to Greenwich Seamen's Hospital, Kent, where he died on 24 April, 1930.
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Other items from Town of Claremont Museum
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BAWDEN FAMILY GROUP PHOTO
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EFFORD, CHARLES WITH MARGARET AND ROBERT THOMPSON
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PORTER, PIERCY AND ETTA
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EFFORD, CHARLES AND FAMILY
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EFFORD, RUTH
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FOUR GENERATIONS, DESCENDENTS OF EFFORD FAMILY
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EFFORD, WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH
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FOUR GENERATIONS OF THE EFFORD/PORTER FAMILIES
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PORTER, BERT
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BEART, ERNEST J. CR.
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PRICE, JACK AND GRIFFITHS, JACK
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PRICE, JACK
