More about William Anderson Boyack

Previously 22153, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders.

William has no known grave but is remembered on the Hollybrook Memorial. He was aboard HMAT Warilda (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) which was a 7713 ton vessel, built by William Beardmore and Company in Glasgow as the S.S. Warilda for the Adelaide Steamship Company. She was designed for the East-West Australian coastal service, but following the start of the war, she was converted into a troopship and later, in 1916, she was converted into a hospital ship.

On 3 August 1918, she was transporting wounded soldiers from Le Havre, France to Southampton when she was torpedoed by the German submarine UC-49. This was despite being marked clearly with the Red Cross; as with a number of other hospital ships torpedoed during the war, Germany claimed the ships were also carrying arms

The ship sank in about two hours, and of the 801 persons on board, exactly 123 people were sent to their deaths when the Warilda sank to the sea floor. The Deputy Chief Controller of the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corp, Mrs Violet Long, lost her life in this action.Amongst the survivors was her commander, Captain Sim, who was later awarded the OBE by King George V. Her wreck lies in the English Channel.