Isaiah Wilkins originally enlisted on 15 December 1915, with a claimed age of 18 and 9 months. The Queensland Times of 6 January 1916 went as far as covering the well-attended dance at which he and other Redbank enlistees were farewelled.
But he was discharged in April without leaving the country. A handwritten letter to the 42nd Battalion from an indecipherably named officer stated:
I enclose this man’s attention to papers and recommend he be discharged as unlikely to become an efficient soldier. His conduct sheet discloses two convictions, and he is at … sent about without leave as well as due to answer a charge of absence from C.B. Roll Call on 8 4 16. He is constantly in trouble over minor offences & altogether an undesirable. I submit no good … will be served in persevering in the disciplining of this man, whose drill is backward as his character.
None of this was mentioned on his forms when he enlisted again in October 1917, now miraculously aged 21 and answering to the name Isiah. The question regarding whether Wilkins had previous service was answered with a “No”.
This time Wilkins was accepted and embarked for war in March 1918. He arrived in France to join the 41st Battalion in August after a period of further training in England. Hospitalised with a “pyrexia of uncertain origin” in September, with symptoms including pains in the chest and head, he was sent to Hospital and left to return to Australia in February 1919. Wilkin’s return to Australia was noted in the Queensland Times on 11 March 1919, one of “several Redbank boys returning from the front.”
On his return, Wilkins played soccer for Redbank Seekers in 1919, including a game at full-back against Bush Rats in June. It is uncertain whether he played before the war. Seekers had been in ad hoc existence in soccer circles since 1910. For part of the decade they played rugby league before returning to soccer by 1919. Seekers remained a soccer club until the 1960s when they merged with Dinmore Bush Rats in 1963.
Wilkins married Ivy Thompson in October 1920, and the couple had two children. Wilkins died in 1974.