Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

PRIVATE WALTER PAGE 1899 - 1918
Private Walter Page, Service no 724 lived a brief and seemingly solitary life. There is no memorial in his home town that reflects his name and no reporting in newspapers of his death. His attachment to family seems non-existent and no correspondence to the War Department or through Red Cross from any family members enquiring about his welfare evident. However, Private Walter Page gave his life in the service of his country and well deserves to be acknowledged and remembered.
He was born on the 7th July 1899 at Stewart Range, South Australia, a blink on the landscape near the rural town of Naracoorte to Henry Anthony Page and Catherine Jane McLachlan . Walter was the youngest in a blended family with two brothers, William and Henry and three sisters, Adeline, Catherine and Elizabeth. His mother Catherine also brought to the family three step sisters, Margaret and Martha McLachlan, Evaline Woods and two step brothers Arthur and John Woods. His father was a shearer and a labourer frequently absent with newspaper reports deeming the family to struggling.
By 1904, Walter and his brothers Henry and William were sent to the Edwardstown Industrial School with their mother incapacitated in the Naracoorte Hospital and it was noted on their records that their father had deserted. There is no record of their parent’s marriage so it is not surprising that there was no warrant for Henry Anthony Page’s desertion. In 1908 records show that Walter and his brothers were once again sent to the Edwardstown Industrial School and whilst there are Police Gazette notices identifying that Harry and William frequently absconded and were found trying to get home to their mother in Penola, no such records are evident for Walter. His mother had married an Alexander Ellis by this time and there is no suggestion that they tried to bring the three boys home.
Perhaps it is not unusual then that when he reported for enlistment at Beltona, Victoria on the 13th March, 1917 he claimed that his parents were dead and he had no guardians . He was only 17 years and 8 months at the time although he recorded his age as two years older. As he was less than 18 years of age which was the usual requirement for a stay within the Child Protection Act of 1899 and the fact that he enlisted in Victoria and not in Adelaide, South Australia where he resided, it can reasonably be surmised that he absconded from the Industrial Children’s home or the home where he was boarded out. The ledger at the State Records Office which contains information regarding Walter’s boarding out is documented as “missing” . Whether or not he was escaping a miserable life of a child in care and the rigid discipline of foster homes or whether he was seeking excitement and adventure on the Western Front as proclaimed by C.E.W. Bean will never be known . The ANZAC legend flourished in Australia supported by propaganda churned out by the war department and through the Australian press disguising the horrific war condition and slaughter of soldiers on a scale that he never been seen before on a world stage.
Walter made a Will when he enlisted and the beneficiary was named as a Miss Eileen Kahn whose address was given as the Grand Central Hotel, Rundell Street, Adelaide . A search of records in South Australia provides information for a Miss Eileen Ida Kau of Port Adelaide who later became Mrs Eileen Frtisch of Terowie. She is mentioned in correspondence with the War Department as the beneficiary of his meagre possessions and she also attempted to claim his War Medals. As she was not blood related, the War Department chose not to issue the medals. Walter claimed that she was a long term friend and it is hoped that this was the case . The fact that he was unable to articulate her last name correctly adds doubt to this claim.
With just three months of training at Royal Park and Seymour with the 15th Machine Gun Company 11 – 15 Reinforcements behind him, Walter embarked on the H.M.A.T. Auevic A29 on the 21st June 1917 and arrived in Liverpool two months later of the 26th August. He had just turned eighteen.
For the next four months he was stationed at Codford in Wiltshire , a place which was used to training Australian and New Zealand soldiers. Australian soldiers had a gregarious reputation which delighted the young English women and horrified the English men. It was noted on his record that he was tried for neglecting to obey and order and being absent without leave for three days, maybe cavorting with one of the young ladies of the district. It is impossible to know whether these transgressions were the result of Walter’s immaturity, the result of a dysfunctional family, being sentenced to an upbringing in a “reform” school environment or a sense of defiance or just being a larrikin as befits the reputation of an ANZAC.
From Codford, Walter was posted with the 59th Infantry Battalion to France on the 4th December 1917 to Havre. He was taken into operation services on the 14th December. The role of the 59th battalion was to sporadically attack and retreat, supporting other troops against the German offensive. This attack was ramped up in March 1917 when the battalion was on the move protecting gains that were made as other troops chased the retreating German troops. It was shortly after this offensive commenced, on the 3rd April 1917 that Walter Page sustained a schrapnel wound. He was evacuated by ambulance to the 41st c Casualty Station at Agnez-Les-Duisans and died eleven days later on the 14th April 1917, three months shy of his nineteenth birthday .
Walter died a mere seventeen months after he enlisted with his actual time on active duty around four months. He is buried at Namps-Au-Val British Cemetery and photographs of his grave were sent to his legatee, Mrs Eileen Fritsch. In Walter’s records held by the National Archives of Australia, there is no record of any correspondence from his mother to the A.I.F. as was in the case of his brothers’ war records. It is hoped that his friend and legatee Eileen wrote letters to Walter whilst he was in service to provide moral support and a sense that somebody cared about him.
As previously mentioned Walter’s name is not honoured on ANZAC day on Memorials erected to the fallen in his local area. On his enlistment papers, Walter was described as being 5 foot 11 inches, weighing 130 pounds with black hair and brown eyes . His brothers’ Police report describe them similarly and as having the look of a “quarter caste” . Walter’s ethnicity is at this stage undetermined although his paternal grandmother is described in newspaper reports as being “black” and “coloured” . Whilst Aboriginal men were accepted to fight in their country’s world war, they were not acknowledged on Memorials. Coincidentally, Walter’s step-brother, Arthur Woods who was of Anglo-saxon descent is remembered on three Memorials in Walter’s birth region in South Australia, although Arthur was born in Victoria. They are at Naracoorte, Lucindale and Penola.