William Charles Fubbs was born in Orange in 1879 to William Andrew Fubbs and his wife Emma. William Junior’s grandfather – Joseph Fubbs – ran a confectionary shop on the corner of Anson and Byng Streets during the 1880s.
William moved to Sydney, marrying Ada Jamieson Scanlan in 1908. The couple was living in Surry Hills when William enlisted in November 1916, aged 37.
He embarked from Sydney in January 1917 and arrived in England in late March. Private Fubbs served in the 1st Pioneer Battalion, 10th Reinforcements, in England and France. He was hospitalised twice during his service; in October 1918 with acute colitis, and again the following month suffering from myocarditis.
William returned to Australia in March 1918 and was discharged from the AIF the following month. William and Emma travelled to the Central West during the shearing season, where William worked as a shearer and Emma, a shearers’ cook.
* Dorothy Duke
