Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Walter George Retallack (called George) was born on 2nd March 1885 at Yongala in the mid north of SA. He was the second of 8 children born to John and Margaret Retallack. The children were typical Cornish, being of short stature. In the early days the family lived in a tent, with the oldest son, William aged eight earning his living by minding stock, then aged 12 carting stone from Lower Mitcham to Adelaide for the construction of Government House in Adelaide.
On one occasion, visiting his uncle and aunt, William and Adelaide Retallack, while on the way to a Golden wedding celebration at Minburra, George and the other children gathered gum from the wattle trees. One of the children took an enormous bite of the gum which subsequently became stuck in his teeth. There was nothing that could be done in the short term but wait for the gum to soften overnight!
George married Elizabeth Bolt on 29th August 1911 at the Launch Etonia Chapel at Scrubby Flat. Their son, Cecil was born in July of the following year at Mannum.
Aged 31 George enlisted in the 3rd Light Horse Regiment. His younger brother, Thomas Malcolm, the 5th child also enlisted and served in the 50th Infantry Battalion when he was 26. Thomas was born in Forster in the Mid Murray, SA. Within 14 months of enlisting Thomas was fatally wounded and died at Messines, Belgium on 10th June 1917.
During the war years those involved would not return home unless they were billeted home on sick leave. It was therefore a huge celebration when George finally returned about August, 1919. This also coincided with his cousin, Blanche Retallack’s 21st birthday. Consequently Blanche used the beautiful yellow centred, white daisy flowers, to decorate the house as George was in the 32nd Battalion, whose colours were yellow and white. George was delighted!
In 1919 there was a flu epidemic
That year it was also an extremely wet Christmas so George took the horse and buggy to bring Blanche’s sister, Ida back to the farm. Blanche and her brother Eric rode their horses in to Peterborough to collect the fruit and greengroceries, with the intention of meeting George and loading the produce in the buggy. All went well until George and Ida left Peterborough heading for the farm when the heavens opened. They narrowly missed a few floods as the rains continued all evening, resulting in them being totally drenched by the time they finally arrived. Blanche and Eric were not so fortunate, having to spend the evening in Peterborough with friends before heading back at daybreak, and just as their family were awakening. This was the last time the extended family could spend Christmas together as different ones married and moved away.
George also learnt to drive bullocks, helping Blanche’s father with the ploughing. Being bigger beasts, the bullocks were slower then horses so the two could not work together, hence George worked his team of bullocks and Blanche’s father worked his horses. George had trained the bullocks so they always worked in pairs and seemed to instinctively know who they were paired with and which side of the yolk was ‘theirs’. When he was teaching new young bullocks, George would put them in the middle with experienced pair in the lead. Eventually the bullock were so well trained that when he called their names, they would move forward into their correct position. At the end of the day, Blanche always knew when George had unhooked his bullocks from the plough as he would always whistle from the paddock to home.
George died on the 5th of December, 1954 at Loxton in South Australia.
Information submitted by Kaye Lee from recollections of grandmother Blanche Cummings (Retallack)