Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From Australian Remembrance Army

Over the past six years we have submitted the service records and causes of death of several hundred veterans to the Office of Australian War Graves for assessment for Official Commemoration. To date, more than 100 of these veterans interred at Lutwyche Cemetery have been accepted as Official Commemorations, and their graves are now being formally marked and will be maintained in perpetuity by the Office of Australian War Graves.

Sergeant Horace William Stanley Warnes (Service No. 23), an Australian World War One veteran who served our nation at Gallipoli, is one of the previously unmarked WWI veterans’ graves in Lutwyche Cemetery that has been accepted as Official Commemorations by the Office of Australian War Graves.
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Horace William Stanley Warnes was born on 21 February 1890 in Strathpine, Brisbane, to William John Warnes and Edith Mary Warnes (née Grant). In January 1911 he married Ninian Violet Smith in Gympie, Queensland, and they had three daughters, Beryl, Elsie and Jean.

Horace enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Gympie, Queensland, on 17 September 1914, aged 24, giving his occupation as a horse breaker and naming his wife, Ninian, as his next of kin. On 21 December 1914 he embarked from Sydney with the 5th Light Horse Regiment aboard HMAT Persic for overseas service.

He served at Gallipoli, where he was treated for influenza in July 1915 and temporarily transferred to the 24th Casualty Clearing Station at Mudros before rejoining his unit in August. Later that year he was appointed Temporary Squadron Sergeant Major, though he was subsequently placed on the sick list while still at Gallipoli. In January 1916 he disembarked at Alexandria, Egypt, and marched out to the Serapeum camp at Maadi.

During 1916 he was hospitalised several times, including treatment for mumps at Abbassia, before being discharged and returning to his unit. In April 1917 he was again admitted to hospital, later transferring through a convalescent depot where he was treated for a mallet finger injury. In November 1917 he reverted to the rank of Sergeant at his own request. In March 1918 he received a wound to the cheek but remained on duty. Horace returned to Australia in November 1918 and was discharged from the AIF in January 1919.

After returning to Australia, Horace lived with his wife and daughters in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, where he worked as a powder maker. Between 1925 and 1958 he resided in Windsor, Brisbane, working as a contractor. In later years he applied for the newly instituted ANZAC Commemorative Medallion and Lapel Badge, issued in 1967 to Gallipoli veterans.

Sergeant Horace William Stanley Warnes died on 15 June 1972, aged 82, and was buried in Monumental Portion 13, Lutwyche Cemetery, Brisbane, alongside his wife, Ninian, who had died in 1953.

In 2024, fifty-two years after his death, we received notification that the Office of Australian War Graves had accepted our application for an Official War Graves Commemoration.

His final resting place now bears a plaque commemorating his service to Australia — ensuring his name endures among those remembered for their duty and sacrifice.

His identity and dignity have been restored.
Lest We Forget