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William Miller OGG
| Rank | Reg/Ser No | DOB | Enlisted | Discharge/Death | Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sapper | 20200 | 24y3m | 21 Apr 1917 | 3 Nov 1919 | 3 |
Sapper William Miller Ogg (1893 - 1930)
William Miller Ogg was the sixth child and third son of George and Mary Mount Ogg, born at Brisbane on 10 January 1893.
Family background
George Ogg (1852-1927) born in the Scottish town of Dunnottar in Kincardineshire, Scotland, was a publican, and came to Melbourne on the ship Somersetshire at the age of 24 in 1875. In Melbourne in 1879, he married Mary Mount Hutton (1854 – 1936) of Fitzroy in a ceremony at which Rev Charles Strong1 officiated. George Ogg became a shipping clerk requiring him to serve first in Sydney, then the Dundathu Reach of the Mary River in Queensland and later at Wynnum and South Brisbane. Their children were born at these places, seven in all - three sons and four daughters. Their eldest daughter Mary Isabel died in 1899 aged sixteen years and was buried in the Toowong Cemetery. George Ogg died in 1927, also buried in the Toowong Cemetery as is Mrs Mary Ogg who died in 1936, outliving her three sons and two of her daughters. Mrs Mary Mount Ogg was a communicant member of Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Creek Street, Brisbane.
The names of her eldest son (James Mount Hutton Ogg) and her youngest son (William Miller Ogg) are on one of the honour boards in the Merrington Anzac Memorial Peace Chapel. Both enlisted and were accepted in the Australian Imperial Force but neither of them fought on the battlefields during the Great War.
The Ogg family would have experienced deep sadness and grief in the few years between 1927 and 1932. Mrs Mary Ogg lost her husband and her three sons in a short period of time.
William's Enlistment
William became an apprenticed draper at Allan and Stark Limited and was still living at home when he enlisted to servce overseas in the AIF on 21 April 1917 at the age of 24 years and three months. Only 4 feet 11½ inches (151 cm) tall,William's previous application to join up had been rejected on account of his short stature. William named his father, George Ogg as next of kin, then living at Water Street West in South Brisbane.
Assigned to reinforcements for Field Company Engineers (FCE), Sapper W. M. Ogg with regimental number 20200 entered the FCE Camp at Moore Park, New South Wales in August, travelled by train to Melbourne in November and embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT2 Nestor on 21 November 1917.
The troops were engaged in further training at the Australian Camp at Suez before embarking at Port Said on HMT Kashgar for Southampton in January 1918. Sapper Ogg’s unit of reinforcements for the Field Company Engineers marched into Number 3 Camp at Parkhouse in southern England where they were stationed for the next twelve months.
Marriage
The war ended in November 1918 and early the following year in Essex, Sapper William Miller Ogg married an English nurse Jeanie Mary Greenwood whose father was a cotton manufacturer. The marriage was solemnized at the Wesleyan Chapel, Chapel Road, Brightlingsea on 11 February 1919 according to the rites and ceremonies of the Wesleyan Methodists.
Service
It was not till 18 February 1919 that Sapper Ogg proceeded overseas to France. He spent a period of time in hospital with influenza followed by convalescence. He carried out duties at the Divisional Base Depot at Boulogne and Reinforcement Camp at Charleroi in Belgium and returned to the United Kingdom in June in readiness for return to Australia per HMAT Ceramic on 9 August 1919. His wife accompanied him on the homeward voyage and they arrived in Melbourne at the end of September. Sapper Ogg’s period of enlistment was terminated on 3 November 1919 in Brisbane. He was awarded the British War Medal for his services during the Great War.
Post war
Bill Ogg returned to his work as a draper’s assistant in Brisbane. He and Mrs Jeannie Ogg were living at Waverley in Smeaton Street, Greenslopes till 1925. Brother William M. Ogg was a member of the UAOD Acorn Lodge. The 1926 electoral roll for the Division of Maranoa, Subdivision of Windorah lists Jeannie Mary Ogg engaged in home duties at Springfield, via Quilpie but William’s name is not listed there.
Passing
William Ogg died on 10 July 1930, aged 37. His funeral moved from the residence of his younger sister Dorothy and his brother-in-law Mr R. H. MacKenzie in Lloyd Street, Camp Hill for the Toowong Cemetery. The Brisbane Courier published three funeral notices but Mrs Jeannie Ogg’s name does not appear in any of them.
Compiled by Noel E. Adsett, Brisbane. October 2016 ©
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