On the 22nd (of May, 1917) the 1st Battalion moved to Hill 63, and the 2nd Battalion relieved the 1st Battalion of the 3rd (Rifle) Brigade in the front line between Currie Avenue and Medicine Hat Trail, with headquarters at McBride's Mansions. With the 1st Battalion fatigues continued to be the order of the day and night, cutting new trenches and improving others. The assembly trenches, although their construction involved a vast amount of labour, were only intended for disposing troops for a few hours prior to the commencement of attack. -Official History of the Otgo Regiment.
Herbert Williamson served with the 2nd Battalion of the Otago Regiment and was in the front line on May 25th when he received a gunshot wound to his left eye. He spent time in hospitals in Boulogne, France, and Walton, England. He was repatriated to New Zealand at the end of the year.
In 1920 he died, of tuberculosis, at the Wakari Sanatorium.
A military funeral was accorded the remains of Herbert Williamson, a soldier who took part in the late war, and died m the Wakari Hospital on the 13th inst. The funeral procession moved off from the residence of his wife in Harrow street, the military authorities being represented by Lieutenant Brooke, and Bugler Napier was included with those who followed the soldier's remains to the grave, and sounded the 'Last Post.' Captain Cahill, of the Salvation Army, officiated at the grave. While the procession was passing down Princes street south, on the way to the Anderson Bay Cemetery, when opposite Messrs Ross and Glendining's boot factory, the workers formed two lines, through which the gun carriage with the body passed. Many of those who attended the funeral were moved by the kindly thought of those in charge, who allowed those with whom the deceased had been associated to pay their last tribute to their fellow-worker. -Evening Star, 17/6/1920.
Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.
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