29/07/2026
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William Henry (Bill) Dare is one of three people who died from the Spanish flu in South Australia on this day, 29 July, in 1919.
Dare was born on 16 April 1889 at Edithburgh, South Australia, to William Henry Dare (1859β1922) and his wife Mary Anne Cawte (1860β1956). He was one of seven children and had three brothers and three sisters: Ethel May (Mrs. Gerald Fenton Benson) (1886β1975), Henry Walrond (1887β1969), Charles Richard (1891β1975), Ivy Alice (Mrs. Thomas Giblet Hayes) (1892β1985), John Walrond (Jack) (1895β1916) and Laura Agnes (1900β1901).
Dare married Louise Albertina Koop on 19 July 1916 at St. George's Anglican Church in Yorketown.
Four weeks later his youngest brother Jack was killed in action at Pozières, France, on 16 August 1916 at the age of 21. He was among the 107 members of the 50th Infantry Battalion who lost their lives on that day in the Battle for Moquet Farm that had begun on 8 August. Jack was initially reported as missing in action and it wasn't until a Court of Inquiry was held on 1 June 1917 that he was reported as killed in action. He has no known grave and is one of more than 10,700 Australian soldiers commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France.
Bill Dare applied to join the Australian Imperial Force on 12 June 1916. He formally enlisted on 11 September 1916 and entered the Exhibition AIF Camp in Adelaide three days later. He was 27 years old, six feet in height, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and fair hair. He was appointed to 'A' Company of the 2nd Depot Battalion with the rank of Private. After attending musketry school, Dare was transferred to the 10th Infantry Battalion (24th Reinforcements). He was discharged from the AIF at his own request on 19 February 1917, having served for 162 days. Dare had passed the final medical and dental examinations in January 1917 and the reasons for him leaving the AIF are not recorded in his service file.
After his military service, Dare joined the South Australian Police and was appointed as a constable.
Louise Dare died in Adelaide on 2 March 1919 at the age of 23. She was buried in the West Terrace Cemetery (Road 5 Path 24 Site 4 West).
Dare was admitted to the Adelaide Exhibition Isolation Hospital on 21 July 1919 and died there eight days later on 29 July 1919 at the age of 30. He was buried with his wife. The Yorketown ππͺπ°π―π¦π¦π³ wrote that βthe residents of Edithburgh were much shocked by the news that Constable W. Dare, second son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Dare, had succumbed to pneumonic influenzaβ. Dare was a well-known footballer, cricketer and swimmer.
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