Wallace Bruce (Wally) DUNCAN

Wallace Bruce (Wally) DUNCAN Update Details

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DUNCAN, Wallace Bruce

Service Number:	171A
Enlisted:	7 May 1915
Last Rank:	Private
Last Unit:	2nd Field Ambulance
Born:	Wycheproof, Victoria, Australia, 6 January 1898
Home Town:	Newport, Hobsons Bay, Victoria
Schooling:	State School no.541 East Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Occupation:	Blacksmith
Died:	Killed in Action, France, 17 April 1918, aged 20 years
Cemetery:	Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, France
Memorials:	Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, East Geelong War Memorial, Williamstown Pictorial Honour Board

World War 1 Service

7 May 1915:	Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 171A, 2nd Field Ambulance
18 May 1915:	Involvement Private, 171A, 1st Australian General Hospital, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: RMS Mooltan embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: ''
18 May 1915:	Embarked Private, 171A, 1st Australian General Hospital, RMS Mooltan, Melbourne
12 Apr 1918:	Wounded Private, 171A, 2nd Field Ambulance, Wounded in action, remained on duty
17 Apr 1918:	Involvement Private, 171A, 2nd Field Ambulance, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 171A awm_unit: 2nd Australian Field Ambulance awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1918-04-17
Date unknown:	Embarked Private, 171A, 1st Australian General Hospital
Date unknown:	Involvement Private, 171A, 1st Australian General Hospital, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: '' embarkation_ship: '' embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: ''

Wally Duncan

Wallace (known as Wally) Bruce Duncan attended State School 541 East Geelong. Mother moved from Collingwood St, Newport Vic (at the time of enlistment) to Home Road, Newport, Vic. Family recollections informed us that even though Wallace put his age as 18yrs 3mths on his enlistment papers, he was only 17. His mother, Mary, signed a consent as she was worried that he'd sign up under a different name and she would never know if anything happened to him. Pte Wallace Bruce Duncan was killed by a German shell explosion while getting rations from a farmhouse used as the Unit's Quartermasters Stores near the La Motte Road, Hazebrouck. His cousin, Leslie William King (175), who is also on the Williamstown Town Hall Honour Board, died in Villers-Bretonneux a week after Wallace. The cousins enlisted together, joined the same unit and both left Melbourne on the RMS Mooltan on 18 May 1915. Following his cousin's death, Wallace's mother, Mary, helped out in the family's newsagency business in Douglas Parade. Both Mary Duncan and Annie King travelled to France when they in their eighties to visit the graves of their sons and erect crosses.

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