Charles Edward (Eddie) D'ALTON

D'ALTON, Charles Edward

Service Number: 769
Enlisted: 27 August 1914, Broadmeadows, Victoria
Last Rank: Lance Corporal
Last Unit: 8th Infantry Battalion
Born: Nhill, Victoria, Australia, 15 January 1890
Home Town: Dimboola, Hindmarsh, Victoria
Schooling: Nhill & Dimboola State Schools, Victoria, Australia
Occupation: Surveyor
Died: Killed in Action, Gallipoli, 6 August 1915, aged 25 years
Cemetery: Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, Gallipoli
Memorials: Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Dimboola Memorial High School WWI Honour Roll
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World War 1 Service

27 Aug 1914: Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 769, 8th Infantry Battalion, Broadmeadows, Victoria
19 Oct 1914: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 769, 8th Infantry Battalion, Enlistment/Embarkation WW1, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '9' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Benalla embarkation_ship_number: A24 public_note: ''
19 Oct 1914: Embarked AIF WW1, Private, 769, 8th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Benalla, Melbourne
25 Apr 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Private, 769, 8th Infantry Battalion, ANZAC / Gallipoli
4 May 1915: Wounded ANZAC / Gallipoli, GSW (elbow)
27 Jul 1915: Promoted AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 8th Infantry Battalion
6 Aug 1915: Involvement AIF WW1, Lance Corporal, 769, 8th Infantry Battalion, The August Offensive - Lone Pine, Suvla Bay, Sari Bair, The Nek and Hill 60 - Gallipoli, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 769 awm_unit: 8 Battalion awm_rank: Lance Corporal awm_died_date: 1915-08-06

Charles Edward D'Alton

Eddie, as he was more commonly known, was born 15 January 1890 at Nhill, Victoria, third child and second son of St. Eloy and Ann D'Alton.

Eddie was a very good sportsman certainly the quieter and less community involved than his brother Henry.

After leaving school Eddie was employed as an assistant in survey parties engaged in marking out the lines for water channels throughout the Wimmera.

At his enlistment on 27th August 1914 at Broadmeadows, he was described at age 23 years and 8 months, 5 feet 9½ inches tall (1.765m) and weighing 166 pounds. His complexion was noted as dark, featured brown eyes and dark brown hair. He bore scars on the outer border of his left forearm and another on the crown of his head.

He was attached to the 8th Battalion Light Horse AIF, initially as a Private number 769.

Eddie received a gunshot wound to the elbow on the 4th May 1915 barely a week after the death of his brother Henry at Gallipoli. His mother was notified in a cablegram on 25th May 1915 and she responded on the 31st May seeking further details of the wound sustained. Advice was forthcoming in June from the War office and in a letter from Eddie that was published in the local papers. Eddie returned to service on 30th May.

One of his letters home received wide circulation in the Wimmera papers. From the Dimboola Banner of 25 June and then the Jeparit Leader of 1 July, he recorded what he had experienced in his nine days on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Subsequent to meritorious service in the 2nd Infantry Brigade, he was appointed Lance Corporal on 27th July 1915.

His parents were advised in a cablegram on the 24th of August that Eddie had been killed in action at Lone Pine in the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 6th of August 1915. St. Eloy and Ann wrote querying why the notification had taken almost 3 weeks to arrive.

Eddie was buried at Shrapnel Valley Cemetery. Advice to his father indicated Eddie was laid to rest in Plot 2, Row A, grave 60, about 400 yards south-east of Anzac Cove.

Lieutenant Bennet sent a letter dated 30th August giving the family greater detail of Eddie’s service and the events surrounding his death, which has not survived.

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Biography contributed by Evan Evans

From Gallipoli, 1915

Writing to his sister on 13th August 1915, Pte. Edmund Nathaniel Fisher, 8th Battalion Australian Infantry, spoke of his tiredness and recalled the death of a friend, Eddy D'Alton. [1]

“Dear Mame — I received your letters up till June 23, and was pleased to hear you are all keeping well. I am quite well: still have luck enough to dodge all Turkish and German bullets. We take no notice of them; but high explosive shells — they are terrible in their work. It was one of them which killed Eddie D'Alton. They are very demoralising, and we get plenty of them trench-fighting, and of course give more back. It is wonderful to see the navy at work here; it gives one an idea of what the Germans are afraid to come out and face in the North Sea. You need not send me any more papers, as there is only a limited number sent on to us, and I get one occasionally from some of the other lads. By the time you get this it will be Show-time in Horsham. We have had our 6th Reinforcement here. It speaks for itself. Our company has been fairly lucky up to date. I hope it continues so; but one never knows.

“Well, Mame, we notice some very inaccurate letters in the papers from the wounded — about being used to shell-fire. But they are from men who have not seen any of its effects, nor been under the same; and, what is more, the Turks are playing the game fair and square. The terrible things they have been reported to have committed have never happened. I have not seen any of it, nor do I know of anyone who has done so; and we have seen as much as anyone here; not like some of the Light Horse men, describing what they did at the landing, when they did not arrive for about three weeks after. In the meantime we had been to Cape Hellas [sic] and made our charge there, and at Achi Baba on May 8. We will never forget it.
“We heard that Arthur Anderson died from his wounds. Is it true or not? A spell from here would not do us any harm, as most of us are now about worn out, for we have been in the trenches practically ever since we came here. The men who are the best off are those who have been slightly wounded; they get away for a spell, and that seems the only chance of getting one. It is now beginning to tell on our nerves. The food is only what you can expect. I have been wearing the one shirt for three months without too many washes in between; likewise the rest of our clothes. I have had one wash in five weeks, so you can guess we would appreciate a swim. We have not had our clothes off a dozen times since we landed. Writing material is very short. I love to get a letter from home, so write soon.” [2]

[1] Pte. Charles Edward D'Alton, 8th Battalion Australian Infantry, was killed in action on 6th August 1915. Buried in Shrapnel Valley Cemetery, he was the 24 year-old son of St. Eloy D'Alton and Ann J. E. D'Alton, of “Anchorage,” Corner of Mrama and Warley Roads, Malvern, Victoria, Australia.

[2] 'Dimboola Banner and Wimmera and Mallee Advertiser' (Victoria), 15th October 1915.

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Biography

Brother of 538 Pte. Henry St Eloy D'Alton (/explore/people/94667) who died of wounds at Gallipoli on 29 April 1915