Lance Corporal Walter STANLEY
26 Jun 1887 – 28 Jun 1918
Walter STANLEY was born at Mount Crawford on 26th June 1887 to Robert and Mary STANLEY, of Keyneton, near Angaston. He was the eldest son of his family. Walter was well known and respected in the Ramco area, having gone there with his brother, Mr. R. Stanley and later bought an orchard of his own.
He was “seeing rather a lot” of a local girl, Miss Vera CROCKER, who Walter referred to as his “loving girl”, and they apparently were engaged shortly before he left for overseas.
Walter enlisted in September, 1915 and on January 10, 1916, members of the Ramco Football Club entertained Walter, and Ptes. G. Lewis and H. Green at a social in the Ramco Hall on the eve of their departure for the front. Mr. Bert Rogers referred to the good work of the soldiers on the football field, and felt sure that their deeds would be even more meritorious on the fighting ground. He asked Walter to accept, on behalf of the club, a silver-mounted pipe. Walter apparently proudly carried and used the pipe constantly.
A “vigilance committee” was formed in Waikerie and they offered to look after the blocks owned and worked by those who volunteered for service until they returned.
Walter left for England shortly afterward. The 48th Battalion was raised in Egypt on 16 March 1916 as part of the “doubling” of the AIF. Walter joined the 48th from the 32nd battalion on 19th April, 1916. Roughly half of the 48th recruits were Gallipoli veterans from the 16th Batt., and the other half, like Walter, were fresh reinforcements from Australia. Reflecting the composition of the 16th, the men of the new battalion hailed mainly from regional South Australia and Western Australia.
The 48th Battalion were involved in some of the fiercest fighting earning these Battle Honours between 1916 and 1918, Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Menin Road, Polygon Wood , Passchendaele, Ancre 1918, Hamel, Amiens, Albert 1918, Hindenburg Line , Epéhy , France and Flanders 1916 & 18 , Egypt in 1916 and the Somme in 1916 & again 1918.
On 25th May, 1917, Walter was promoted to Lance Corporal. They were in the Somme in France, when on 6th June, 1918, it was mistakenly reported that Walter had been wounded. Walters mother, Mary, received a telegram to tell her that he was reported wounded but this was afterwards corrected and she received a telegram correcting the error and saying that Walter was uninjured.
Unfortunately on 28th June, 1918,( two days after his birthday) whilst in the trenches at the front lines at Saily-Le-Sec the battalion was subjected to 40 minutes of intense heavy bombardment. By this time trenches had been designed to minimize the impact of these shells and at the completion of the shelling 6 men were injured and one, Walter STANLEY had been killed and Mary received the telegram she was dreading.
Walter’s pipe was not returned with his property and it is believed it was buried with him. Miss Vera CROCKER was heartbroken and each year, on the anniversary of his death, she was still putting memorial notices in the paper into the 1930’s.
Walter Stanley is interred in the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Picardie, France and is commemorated on the Australian War Memorial on the Roll of Honour. STANLEY street in WAIKERIE is named in his honour.
Walters grave was in the area of fierce fighting in World War 2 when advancing allied forces came against a German sniper and machine gun post in the memorial tower.
Shots back and forth damaged headstones, the memorial cross and the memorial tower and memorial wall of names of the fallen. (see attached photos) The majority of this damage was repaired but some left to highlight the battle that raged through the cemetery in WW2. Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Picardie, is also home to the Australian Memorial in France the Sir John MONASH centre which is situated behind and below the memorial tower.
Walter is also commemorated on the 1914-1918 Honour Board at the Waikerie Soldiers Memorial Institute and on the War Memorial in the WAIKERIE War Memorial Gardens.
