The death of an Alexander Gingles was noted in the Preston Leader on 2 February, 1918 in an article relating to the return of another serviceman from Whittlesea.
He remained a mystery as there is no record of a serviceman of this name listed in any World War One archives, but his true identity was later detected after a memorial service was held at the Scrubby Creek Presbyterian Church “for the late Private Alexander Woods (better known as Gingles from his foster parents) was held”. (Scrubby Creek was changed to Humevale in 1925)
His Attestation confuses the issue further – his next of kin was shown as “Father, Alexander Woods, Whittlesea”, subsequently marked “no such person” and altered to Gingles.
Woods was posted as Missing on 3 May, 1917, but unlike most of those unaccounted for, there is no eyewitness account, simply a note that a Court of Enquiry was held on 26 November, 1916 and he was declared Killed In Action at Bullecourt on the original date on 24 January, 1918; like many of those killed in France whose remains were never found, his sacrifice was commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in Picardie.
Woods-Gingle’s death saw a large gathering at a Memorial Service in the Scrubby Creek school house on the evening of Sunday, 10 February at which it was noted that 19 residents of the small settlement had enlisted, with four paying the supreme sacrifice – the others 4417, Richard Ely Draper, 4289A, 1195, Keith Mitchell, and Robert Thomas Windsor (whose brother 1905, Victor Rowling Windsor was also killed on 19 August of that year).
The Gingles family suffered further tragedy when their daughter Jessie died in August, 1925 at just 28 years, her death described as “rather suddenly after a short illness”.
Link to the history of Alexander Woods
Link to ozsportshistory.com downloads for WW1
