Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Private Walter James Armistead (Service No:278) enlisted in the AIF on 22 March 1916 and was attached to 2nd Machine Gun Coy on 4 May 1916 when he embarked with his Unit from Melbourne for Egypt on board HMAT A17 Port Lincoln, and from Alexandria for England on 29 July 1916 on board HT Arcadia. Private Armistead - mustered as Driver - served on the Western Front, and embarked from England for Melbourne on 4 June 1919 on board HT Mahia. Private Armistead was attached to 2nd Machine Gun Coy at Discharge on 31 August 1919.

Walter was born in Boonah via Deans Marsh, Victoria in 1892, sixth of eight children of John Armistead (b1855 in Geelong, Victoria) and Harriet Elizabeth Mousley (b1857 in Geelong, Victoria). John and Harriet married in Bambra in 1883 and settled in the Winchelsea region (Deans Marsh, Birregurra, Boonah), where they raised their family and John was a Bullock Driver and Farmer. Harriet died in 1907, and John in July 1919 - just weeks before Walter's return home. John's death was 'self inflicted gun shot' (Inquest) and his body was discovered by his two youngest sons, Horace and Bill.

Walter worked as a Labourer at Boonah via Deans Marsh before serving in WWI. Following his Discharge, he worked as a Labourer at Boonah and Lorne, and in 1920 in Bambra via Birregurra, he married Edith Agnes Trigg (b1895 in Bambra, Victoria). Walter and Edith lived at Boonah via Birregurrah, where they raised their family and Walter worked as a Labourer. By 1928 they had settled at Mt Violet via Woorndoo, where Walter purchased a Farm through the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act 1917. In the late 1930s the family moved to Larpent and in the 1940s to Bungador via Cobden - where Walter was a Farmer. In the late 1950s, Walter and Edith retired to Camperdown, where Edith died in 1966 and Walter in 1973.