William Harmon was born on 20 July 1886 in the seaside city Bangor, Ireland. He was a baby when his parents, James Harmon and Jane Skilling, moved with their three children to Western Australia. Their first few years in Perth were tinged with sadness with two further children dying in infancy (this after they’d also lost a child while in Bangor).
William travelled three kilometres each morning from the family home on Wittenoom Street, Perth, to attend classes at Newcastle Street Government School. Here he played football, at full-back and occasionally goalkeeper, for the Newcastle Street team that contested the 1901 and 1902 Schools League seasons.
On completion of his schooling, William took up an apprenticeship as a joiner with the building firm Franklin and Finlay, in whose employ he would remain for five years. In 1913 he married Eliza Snow with the newlyweds choosing View Street in North Perth for their family home.
In October 1916, 30-year old William enlisted with the Field Artillery Brigade, as a Gunner. After a lengthy period training at home as well as in Egypt and England, he was assigned to the 112th (Howitzer) Battery of the 12th Field Artillery Brigade and by the end of March 1918 had been deployed to France. William’s battery was involved in the intense fighting of the Second Battle of Dernancourt after which they moved to the Strazeele-Hazebrouck sector, near the Belgian border. On 11 June 1918 William was shot in the left buttock; he died of wounds two days later while at the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station at Trois Arbres, France.