WATERS, Edward Matthew
| Service Number: | 2646 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 29 May 1915, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 15th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Gympie, Queensland, Australia, 23 May 1893 |
| Home Town: | Gympie, Queensland |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Miner |
| Died: | Died of wounds (POW of Germany), France, 16 February 1917, aged 23 years |
| Cemetery: |
Porte-de-Paris Cemetery, Cambrai, France Plot II, Row A, Grave 17 |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial, Gympie & Widgee War Memorial Gates |
World War 1 Service
| 29 May 1915: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 2646, Brisbane, Queensland | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2646, 15th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '11' embarkation_place: Brisbane embarkation_ship: HMAT Kyarra embarkation_ship_number: A55 public_note: '' | |
| 16 Aug 1915: | Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 2646, 15th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Kyarra, Brisbane | |
| 23 Oct 1915: | Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 2646, 15th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli | |
| 1 Feb 1917: | Imprisoned |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Stephen Brooks
Edward Matthew Waters joined the 15th Battalion in May 1915 and transferred to the Camel Corps in Egypt. He rejoined the 15th Battalion in France on 17 January 1917, only two weeks before he took part in a in a raid on 1 February 1917, near Gueudecourt, when the 15th Battalion attacked a section of the German front line known as Stormy Trench. The party consisted of 220 men and six officers, or about one and half companies. The attack started at about 7.00 p.m. on a frontage of about 550 yards. Although the enemy trenches were only 100 yards from the Australian lines, inadequate artillery support caused the attack to fail. A German counter attack at 11 p.m. was beaten off. In the face of relentless German shelling and bombing of the captured trenches, and a stronger German counter attack at 4.30 a.m. the Battalion was forced to retire at 5.a.m. Although 52 German soldiers were captured, the 15th Battalion’s casualties were 33 men killed, and 11 died of wounds over the next few weeks, most of those as POWs, and over 20 others were captured by the Germans.
Edward Waters was one those captured, badly wounded in the legs, and may have lain out in No Man’s Land for some time, as his left leg was amputated in in a German field hospital and his right foot was badly frost bitten. He died of his wounds two weeks later on 16 February 1917.
His brother, 1735 Private Robert Thomas Waters 2nd Light Horse Regiment, enlisted at 17 years of age during 1915 and returned to Australia with a new wife in 1920.
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