Walter Wilmott

By August 1917, the small mining community of Neath had sent 18 soccer players to the Great War. So great was the call of country, they could hardly raise half a dozen players above 18 years old between them. Neath Colliery miner, Private William Willmott was one of the enlistees. He was wounded in action twice in France. The first time, in July 1916, severely with gunshot wounds to both buttocks and the second time, near the end of the war on 29 September 1918, with a gunshot wound to the right arm. Upon his return to Australia, Walter Wilmott went back to work at the colliery. He married Sarah Adams in 1920 and lived to the age of 78. He died in Neath in 1963.