Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

His son was also a casualty of the Great War.

He was Second Lieutenant Bertie Walter Whicker- Australian Flying Corps - Service No. 2577. Bertie was accepted for commemoration as war dead on 21st June 2014.

He was a passenger on an Avro 504K (H3021) which stalled on an afternoon training flight at Point Cook. The aircraft spun 500 feet nose first into the ground about half a mile north of the airfield hangars. He died in Caulfied Military Hospital of injuries suffered in the crash, aged 22.

Interred 

BRIGHTON GENERAL CEMETERY, VICTORIA

Other Denom. A. 64

The Argus, Melbourne, Vic. - Friday, 14 September 1945
IN MEMORIAM
Roll of Honour - On Active Service
WHICKER - In memory of my husband, Rupert Whicker who died in Bath War Hospital, England after six months in the trenches in France, September 14, 1918; also my beloved son, Bertie Whicker who returned second lieutenant in the Flying Corps and was killed, while serving, in an accident at Point Cook on April 6, 1921.
(Inserted by wife and mother, Nellie Whicker, Edithvale.)"

The summary below was completed by Cathy Sedgwick – Facebook “WW1 Australian War Graves in England/UK

Died on this date - 14th September.....Sapper Rupert Gilchrist Whicker was born at at Liverpool, Lancashire, England in 1873.

Rupert Whicker came to Australia in 1887. He married in Ballarat, Victoria in 1896.

Rupert Whicker enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.) on 21st August, 1917 as a 44 year old, married Miner from Glenhuntly, Victoria.

Sapper Rupert Gilchrist Whicker embarked from Melbourne, Victoria on SS Indarra on 26th November, 1917 with the June, 1917 Reinforcements, Tunnelling Companies & disembarked at Suez on 27th December, 1917. (Sapper Whicker’s son – Bertie Walter Whicker, Mechanic, aged 20, had enlisted on 15th October, 1917 with a service number of 2577 & was posted with Australian Flying Corps, No. 1 Special Draft.

Father & son both embarked on SS Indarra on 26th November, 1917. Bertie Whicker returned from World War 1 but was killed in an aeroplane accident at Point Cook, Victoria on 6th April, 1921).

Sapper Whicker embarked from Port Said on 9th January, 1918; disembarked at Taranto, Italy entrained to Cherbourg, France then embarked on HMT Mona's Queen & disembarked at Southampton, England on 2nd February, 1918.

Sapper Whicker was posted to No. 3 Camp Details at Parkhouse, Wiltshire from Australia on 2nd February, 1918. He proceeded to France & joined 1st Tunnelling Company in the Field on 16th April, 1918.

1st Australian Tunnelling Company
The 1st Australian Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the Royal Australian Engineers during World War I. The tunnelling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines under enemy lines, as well as other underground work such as the construction of deep dugouts for troop accommodation, the digging of subways, saps (narrow trenches dug to approach enemy trenches), cable trenches, and underground chambers for signals and medical services. (Wikipedia)

Sapper Whicker was sent sick to Hospital on 23rd August, 1918. He was invalided to England on Hospital Ship Archangel on 27th August, 1918 & admitted to Bath War Hospital, Somerset, England on 28th August, 1918 with Inflammation of stomach.
Sapper Rupert Gilchrist Whicker died at 3.10 am on 14th September, 1918 at Bath War Hospital, Somerset, England from Malignant disease of stomach.

Sapper Rupert Gilchrist Whicker was buried on 17th September, 1918 in Locksbrook Cemetery, Bath, Somerset, England where 6 other WW1 Australian Soldiers are buried.

Ellen Whicker, widow of the late Sapper Rupert Gilchrist Whicker, placed Memorial Notices in the local newspapers every year in September up to 1945. She died 1st January, 1947.

(The above is a summary of my research. The full research can be found by following the link below)
https://ww1austburialsuk.weebly.com/bath.html