Bill Bailey was an ambulance officer attached to the Kempsey Ambulance Service, joining in 1931 at the age of 19. He was noted for his courtesy and cool efficiency, as well as for his conscientious attention to his work (Macleay Chronicle 26 May 1943).
In October1936 he enlisted in the Kempsey company of the 13th Battalion, and served with this Militia unit as a lance-corporal until September 7, 1940 when he left the Ambulance Service to join the A.I.F. at Newcastle. His initial training at Tamworth was followed by more at the Sydney Showground as a member of the Australian Army Medical Corps.
He was posted on November 22, 1940 the 2/12th Field Ambulance with further training at Cowra between December 1940 and March 1941.
In April 1941 the unit travelled in stages to Darwin for training in tropical warfare. During this time besides providing clinical medical support to 23 Brigade, the medics also undertook much of the physical construction of the hospital facilities at both Katherine and Winnellie. In this capacity they were often referred to humorously as the ‘2/12th Pioneers’.
Bill’s unit spent nearly twelve months in Darwin on such duties, but following the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, 45 volunteers from the 2/12th were attached to Gull Force at Ambon and another 45 to Sparrow Force at Timor. All were captured, most massacred. Bill was amongst another group that were sent ‘overseas’ but in the meantime Singapore had fallen, and his ship was returned to Darwin.
The project was an initiative of the then Kempsey Municipal Council which, a few years after the end of World War II resolved to honour the Macleay Valley’s fallen of that conflict by naming new streets after them. Even after the amalgamation of the councils in 1975 there was steady progress, but in 1989 came a move to abandon it. Stout intervention came from the Macleay River Historical Society whose members were very much aware of the unique and historical significance of the street-naming. As a result, the council adopted a policy that priority be given to these deceased war heroes in all future street-naming procedures.
The Historical Society produced the book to ensure that the stories behind the street names would not be forgotten.
The unit remained in Darwin through something like 70 bombing raids until January 1943 when they were posted south to Corrimal in the Illawarra area of NSW. There they remained till they moved to Sydney to board the Centaur on 11 May 1943.
B i l l B a i l e y w a s a Birmingham (England) lad being born there on December 18, 1912. Following his father’s death in April 1919, he came to Australia with his mother. She later remarried and became Mrs N.A. McNamara.
Bill went to school in Lismore, and then with his mother and stepfather arrived on the Macleay in 1928. They lived at 43 Kemp Street, West Kempsey.
Before joining the ambulance service as a driver-mechanic Bill worked at Whitaker’s Newsagency in West Kempsey for three years. He was senior bearer in the Ambulance Service when he left to join the Australian Army Medical Corps.
On the opening of the new Kempsey Ambulance Station in 1948 an anonymous donor came forward with the offer of two trees to be planted in front of the building in honour of Pte Bill Bailey.
Bill’s stepfather worked for the Railways and was also a volunteer with the Ambulance Service and it was no doubt this connection that assisted in having the railways gardener set out the grass plots and gardens of the new station, including the planting of two dwarf species of golden pine in Bill’s memory.
Bill was engaged to be married at the time of his death.
Date of Birth: 18 December 1912
Place of Birth: Handswoth, Birmingham England
Place of Enlistment: Newcastle, NSW
Date of Enlistment (AIF): 1st July 1940
Rank: Private
Unit: 2/12th Field Ambulance
Home Town: Kempsey, NSW
Next of Kin: Mrs Ethel McNamara (Mother)
Parents: Herbert Arthur McNamara & Ethel McNamara
Occupation: Bearer Driver, Kempsey District Ambulance
