William Reginald Rawlings, MM

Military Medal

The Military Medal was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other services, and formerly also to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land....

 (Service No. 3603) (1892 – 9 August 1918) was the uncle of Captain Reginald Saunders

Reg Saunders

Reginald Walter Saunders MBE was the first Aboriginal commissioned officer in the Australian Army. Enlisting as a soldier in 1940, he served during World War II in North Africa, Greece and Crete before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea in...

, MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, the first Aboriginal commissioned officer in Australian Military Forces.

Born on Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve

Framlingham, Victoria

Framlingham was an Aboriginal reserve established by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria, Australia in 1861. It was located beside the Hopkins River in the territory of the Girai wurrung near the boundary with the Gunditjmara, not to far from Warrnambool on the south-west coast...

 in western Victoria to William and Bessie Rawlings, Rawlings was a horse-breaker around Purnim

Purnim, Victoria

Purnim is a township in Victoria, Australia. The town is located south west of the state capital, Melbourne, on the Hopkins Highway midway between Warrnambool and Mortlake. At the 2006 census, Purnim and the surrounding area had a population of 459....

 before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force

Australian Imperial Force

The Australian Imperial Force was the name given to all-volunteer Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and World War II.* First Australian Imperial Force * Second Australian Imperial Force...

 at Warrnambool, Victoria on 20 March 1916. After undertaking initial training, he embarked on HMAT Orsova from Melbourne on 1 August 1916. He joined the 29th Battalion

29th Battalion (Australia)

The 29th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. First formed in 1915 for service during the First World War it fought in the trenches of the Western Front in France and Belgium before being disbanded in 1918. In 1921 it was re-raised as a unit of Australia's part-time military...

, 8th Brigade

8th Brigade (Australia)

8th Brigade is an Australian Army Reserve combined-arms formation stationed in New South Wales.The 8th Brigade is one of six brigades of the Australian Army's 2nd Division, and includes units and personnel from all Armoured, Infantry, Artillery, Engineers, Signals, Ordinance , Medical, Nursing,...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, as part of the battalion's 8th Reinforcements.

Rawlings was awarded the Military Medal for bravery during heavy fighting along the Morlancourt Ridge on the 28–29 July 1918. Private

Private (rank)

A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...

 Rawlings was killed in action on 9 August 1918, during the capture of Vauvillers, France. Rawlings was 27 years old.

Rawling's friend, Henry Thorpe who also received the Military Medal, was also killed on the same day. They are both buried in the Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, France.