Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Walter Neville Stone # 2656 9th Battalion
Walter Stone enlisted soon after his nineteenth birthday on 11th June 1915. He had furnished written permission by his parents, Charles and Helen and gave his address as “Northcote” Wilde Street, Wynnum. His attestation papers reveal that he was employed as a potter and was already serving with the Citizens Forces at Manly.
Walter was drafted into the 8th reinforcements of the 9th Battalion. The 9th Battalion was an all Queensland regiment of the 1st Division of the AIF and was one of the first units ashore at Gallipoli on 25th April. Walter and the other reinforcements embarked at Pinkenba on 16th August 1915 and arrived in Egypt in October. By the time Walter joined his unit at Mudros on the Island of Lemnos in November 1915, the Gallipoli campaign was being closed down. In January 1916, the battalion moved back to Egypt where the reorganisation of the AIF was to occur.
On 3rd April 1916, the newly reinforced 9th Battalion landed in Marseilles and proceeded to the “Nursery sector” of the western front around Armentieres. The battalion spent several months rotating in and out of the line before being called south to the Somme in July.
Haig; Supreme British Commander in France, launched his Somme offensive on 1st July 1916. In spite of suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day, Haig continued the “big push” along the axis of the Albert Bapaume Road and by the end of July the British forces were halted at the village of Pozieres. The 1st Australian Division would face its first major action in an attack on the village of Pozieres timed to commence at midnight on the 22nd July.
Red Cross wounded and Missing Reports indicate that while manning an observation post in a trench prior to the attack, Walter was struck in the back by a “whizzbang” and died soon afterwards. He may have been buried but the confusion and relentless shelling that occurred over the next few days meant that all trace of Walter was lost.
Pozieres was a brutal initiation into the horror and terror of war on the western front for the Australian Divisions that fought there. Many of those who fell at Pozieres and nearby Mouquet Farm have no known grave, such was the intensity of the shelling that took place. The families of those missing soldiers found it difficult to comprehend that their loved one had disappeared without a trace, and letters were often sent to the authorities seeking some information about how they died.
In the case of Walter Stone, his mother wrote a poignant letter to base records seeking information, as well making enquiries with the Red Cross. Her letter, preserved in the files at the National Archives, is on black bordered paper. She reports in the letter that she and her husband were informed of Walter’s death by Dr. Rowe of the Wesleyan Church. The Wesleyan connection may explain why a boy from Wynnum is commemorated on the memorial of the Coorparoo Methodist Church.
Walter Stone is commemorated on the tablets at the Australian National Memorial, Villers Bretonneux along with 11,000 other Australians who were killed in the battles in France but have no known grave.
Today just outside the village of Pozieres are the remains of a windmill and German blockhouse. The windmill provides a panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. On the site of the windmill is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”