Early Life and World War I
Bostock was born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, to an English father, also named William, and a Spanish mother, Mary. He was educated at The School, Mount Victoria, in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, where he completed his junior certificate. The family later moved to Burwood, in Sydney's Inner West. After leaving school Bostock was employed as an apprentice with the Marconi Company for two-and-a-half years, and spent time at sea as a wireless operator.
In November 1914, Bostock joined the 2nd Signal Troop of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a sapper. He landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, serving there until August, when he was evacuated suffering from dysentery. He returned to active duty in January 1916, and was made lance corporal the following month. Promoted to sergeant, Bostock was posted to Egypt with the ANZAC Mounted Division in April 1916, and saw action against Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Bostock transferred from the AIF to the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve on 18 February 1917, and was commissioned as a probationary second lieutenant. He was posted to No. 48 Squadron in August, following pilot training in Egypt and England. Bostock fought on the Western Front and was awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre. He was invalided back to Britain in March 1918, after which he transferred to the newly created Royal Air Force (RAF).
Read more about this topic: William Bostock
Famous quotes containing the words world war i, war i, early life, early, life, world and/or war:
“Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.”
—Karl Von Clausewitz (1780–1831)
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome around A.D. 100] thought that the earliest years of the child’s life were crucial. Education should start earlier than age seven, within the family. It should not be so hard as to give the child an aversion to learning. Rather, these early lessons would take the form of play—that embryonic notion of kindergarten.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“Nominee. A modest gentleman shrinking from the distinction of private life and diligently seeking the honorable obscurity of public office.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“Topographically the country is magnificent—and terrifying. Why terrifying? Because nowhere else in the world is the divorce between man and nature so complete. Nowhere have I encountered such a dull, monotonous fabric of life as here in America. Here boredom reaches its peak.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“In war personal revenge maintains its silence.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)