Sarah Jane Gillett (nee Wagg) and William John Neely
In our last post, we saw the home where our matriarch, Sarah Wagg (nee Turner), died in 1918. Dale, a granddaughter of William John Neely (1898 to 1947), recalls that 247 West Street, North Sydney was the address William used on his First World War discharge papers stating it was the home of his uncle (and Sarah's son), William John (Bill) Webb-Wagg (1873 to 1933).
So Sarah was living with her son Bill, his wife Ethel (nee Swanson) and their six children - Les, Bill, Em, Christopher, Charlie and Ali - at the time of her death. We've seen a number of precious documents that have passed through the family of Bill Webb-Wagg. This adds to the story of how they survived for over 150 years!
William Neely was the oldest of the four children of Arthur John Burns (Top) Neely and Minnie Daisy Webb Wagg (the youngest of William and Sarah's children). Minnie died on 08 July 1911 and Top Neely was still living at the family home in Willoughby at the end of the First World War.
I haven't been able to locate William Neely's discharge documents showing the address. However, I've located this document which shows that William was a driver, wounded on two occasions, August 1916 and October 1917, and returned to Australia on 19 July 1919 on board the "Beltana". William was awarded:-
- 1914-15 Star for service in specified theatres of war between 5 August 1914 and 31 December 1915.
- British War Medal 1914-20 was instituted by King George V to mark the end of World War 1 and records the service given.
- The Victory Medal to commemorate the victory of Allied Forces over the Central Powers
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William's First World War service papers also contain two letters from his aunt, Sarah Jane Gillett (nee Wagg). The first, dated 18 July 1918, is written from her address at 31 Cooks Street, Tempe and seeks William's address. Sarah comments that her son and son-in-law were in Egypt and France "but never found him". On 1 August 1918, as soon as Sarah receives a response, she again writes with "many thanks" and comments that she had William's service number from an "old photo belonging to another friend".
William would not have seen his grandmother, Sarah Wagg, again as she died on 21 September 1918 - not long after his aunt, Sarah Gillett, wrote these letters. He returned to Australia about 9 weeks before his aunt's death on 28 September 1919. I'm wondering if Sarah died from the effects of the Spanish Flu Pandemic that was sweeping though Australia at the time.
