Will McDiarmid was 21 years old, single and employed as a labourer. He had been born in Ballarat. He enlisted in the 8th Infantry Battalion in Ballarat on the day that recruiting started ,the 17th August 1914. On the 7th of August 1915 Will McDiarmid was wounded in the face and eyes with shrapnel from a bursting artillery shell. He entered the military medical system and was evacuated to Valetta Military Hospital on Malta on 12th August. On the 8th September he was evacuated further by hospital ship to London, and was admitted to the County of London War Hospital.
On the 8th November he returned to England on special leave for 1914 enlistees. On 3rd December 1918 he sailed from UK on HMAT Port Hacking, and disembarked in Melbourne on 27th January 1919. Having completed the necessary procedures he was discharged from the AIF on 26th March 1919. Tree No. 28, an elm, was planted by Miss R . Dunstan, a 'Lucas Girl', in the Ballarat Avenue of Honour, on 4th June 1917.