Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of William Ardagh Gardner Walter and his wife Lucille Jane Thomson, of Wild Club, Perth, Western Australia.

The news of the death of their only son, Lieut. William Guy Ardagh Walter, was broken to Mr. and Mrs. W. A. G. Walter at the Residency yesterday. The bearer of the sad  intelligence was the Bishop of Kalgoorlie, Dr. Golding Bird, to whom it had been communicated by telegram. The message simply stated that Lieut. Walter was killed in action on  August 5 last. Both parents were deeply moved, and the mother of the deceased soldier became utterly prostrated by grief. The intensity of their feeling was redoubled when an  hour or two later they received by the ‘(Soldiers’ Mail” a letter from their son, written by him from somewhere in France.” When the news spread in Kalgoorlie and district that  Lieut. Walter had lost his life fighting for King and country, there were many expressions of sympathy for the bereaved parents. The flag was flown at half-mast at Hannans Club, of which institution Lieut. Walter was an honorary member during a brief sojourn on the fields. Lieut. Walter was born at Bunbury, West Australia, 28 years ago. He was educated  in England at the Sherborne School (Dorset) and Leeds University, where he took a course of engineering. He subsequently got practical knowledge at Kisson’s Engineering Works  at Leeds. He returned to Australia in 1913, and was engaged for a period on the Great Fingall mine at Day Dawn, Murchison. Later on he entered the service of the New South Wales Railway and Tramway Department in Sydney. He tried to join the Australian-Imperial Expeditionary Force at the outbreak of the war, but, owing to certain varicose veins, he  could not then be accepted. Determined to become a soldier, he went into hospital and submitted to an operation for the removal of the veins in question. 
Afterwards he left New South Wales for the purpose of enlisting in his native State. He paid a visit to his parents in Kalgoorlie, and enlisted with Lieut. Edwards, then recruiting  officer. He went into camp as a private and passed through both the non-commissioned officers’ and the officers’ schools. He was appointed an acting-Sergeant- Major and trained  many troops at Claremont before leaving for Egypt, whither he went with reinforcements for the 16th Battalion. Whilst in Egypt he was made a Company Sergeant-Major, and a  few weeks later he was granted a second lieutenancy in another battalion, at the time of the re-organisation of the A.I.F. after the Gallipoli campaign. He was ordered with other  Australians to France, where he received his death wounds.