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Australia

Walter was born on the 6th December 1920 at Penola, a country town in the south-east of South Australia known for its farming and being a central railway town. Walter, universally known as Wally, was the third son of parents George Edward Jacob and Charlotte Estelle Sharp. George was a respected football umpire in the Lameroo and District Football Association in the ‘20s so it was not unexpected that his sons would also be sportsmen. They played a variety of sports with Charles and Wally being in the same cricket team.
Wally was also an academically talented student, regularly being mentioned for his excellent results whilst attending the Pinnaroo School. Even as a youngster, Wally was regarded as a champion junior cricketer. As a 15-year-old he was called up to play in the senior cricket competition for Oaks against Pinnaroo. However, in that encounter, and much to the dismay of his clubmates, Wally was clean bowled for six. He continued with the club, experiencing much greater success to become their opening batsman with C. Mattiske. Wally was also a clever bowler, being described as ‘particularly destructive on the tail-enders, taking two wickets for none’ in a match against Parilla. By the start of the ’37 season, Wally was almost a cult hero, being cheered as he walked onto the oval as opening batsman for Pinnaroo in a match against Lameroo. The local Pinnaroo and Border Times reported that the two opening ‘boys gave the visitors a wonderful start, and it was not until he was 18 that Williams (fellow opener) was unlucky enough to put his leg in front of a ball’ to be bowled l.b.w. In the same match Wally excelled with the ball with the opposing batsman, endeavouring to hit Wally out of the ground, failed to connect, and was given out l.b.w. The following batsmen also fell victim to Wally’s bowling, for he was keeping a perfect length and forced the batsmen to react to such a regular line and length. Briefly given a rest from bowling, Wally was again later handed the ball and in the third ball of the new over clean bowled one batsman, held the next to a very low score before taking a third wicket when that batsman made the fatal mistake in trying to drive a ball loftily back to the bowler who made no error in taking the catch. For the reporter in the local press, a feature of the match was the high scoring of two of the men, “Doug” Ross and “Barney” Withers, and the batting and bowling of “Wally” Sharp.
With the deepening Depression, work was scarce so with the outbreak of WWII, the drive to encourage fit, single young men to enlist offered the opportunity to serve their country, be paid and to see the world. When Wally, a 20-year-old, enlisted on the 14th February ’41, he was an unemployed labourer. By that stage, his parents had moved from Penola to live at Magill but Wally continued to maintain links with his hometown. Initially he was allocated to the established 2/43rd Battalion as SX11302 before travelling to Terowie for training in conditions that were designed to replicate those of the Middle East. Pre-embarkation leave was spent back at Penola where the locals organised a farewell dance at the Pinnaroo Institute dance, (while also catered for a fund-raiser for their ‘Baby Fuller’ competition). The R.S.A. and P.G.S.A.C. spoke in praise of the enlistees and a parcel presentation was made to four of the most recent young men. Besides Wally, these included 20-year-old Humphrey Darke SX6937 and 22-year-old Horace ‘Beau’ Jones SX6856 both of whom were from the 2/48th Battalion.
Soon after, Wally joined the two, being allocated to the reinforcements for the 2/48th Battalion. The trio were then part of a large group which headed overseas on the ‘Ile de France’ in April, arriving in the Middle East in August. The new troops headed to the Staging camp at Amiriya in December ’41.
Within six months, on July 22nd ‘42 Wally sustained a gunshot wound to his right shoulder. That date was seared in the memory of those in the 2/48th who survived. 1942 was to be a challenging one for the Battalion. Orders had been received to capture West Point of Tel el Eisa in a dawn attack. In late June ‘42 with Rommel crossing into Egypt, the 2/48th were in an offensive to capture Trig 33, which was achieved on the 10th July. In doing so, over 400 Italian prisoners were taken. The 2/48th battalion then advanced south, capturing the Tel el Eisa station and repelling numerous counter attacks. However, they were eventually forced to withdraw, having suffered over 100 casualties. It was during this attack that Private Stan Gurney was awarded the 2/48th Battalion’s first VC having captured two machine gun posts and bayonetting the gun crew firing on his company but was killed attempting to take a third. The 2/48th battalion suffered 215 casualties between the 7th July and 23rd October. Of that number, 64 men were killed and six, died of their wounds. 125 other men were wounded but survived, including Wally.
In his book, ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’, John G. Glenn described the ferocious encounter. ‘When the troops were well forward of the start-line they came under terrific fire from shells and mortars from the front and left, and suffered heavy casualties. With the slow deliberate movement of perfectly trained soldiers both companies continued the advance in perfect formation, over ground that trembled and erupted with vicious explosions. Through this, sometimes obscured by the smoke and dust, the men moved, and, as they advanced, the fire kept place with them, leaving behind the still shapes of fallen men among the camel bush and sand.’
Back home, in an attempt to reassure readers, the Pinnaroo and Border Times in August ’42 reported that ‘Two further reports which have caused keen regret this week have been the wounding of Pte Alf. Badman (SX13639), son of Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Badman, of Pinnaroo, and Pte Wally Sharp, son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Sharp, of Payneham. Both boys are very well known in this district and residents trust that they will speedily recover from their injuries. In each case the report read, “wounded in action," therefore the injuries, are probably not serious.’ Walter spent time recuperating in hospital.
This was followed by an official list in the Advertiser of those killed or wounded. Wally was listed in the latter group of 34 published names along with Cecil Clark SX7725 from Langhorne Creek, Cyril Fleet SX8132 from Mt Barker, Gerald Bellinger SX8878 from Millicent, SX7497 Ronald Chinner from Angaston, SX13570 Charles Manuel from Balaklava and SX8138 Albert McKenzie all in the 2/48th Battalion.
Re-joining his battalion, in October Wally was further wounded in his right leg and returned to hospital. Again, the news was shared through the local paper in November. ‘WAR CASUALTIES PTE WALLY SHARP AGAIN WOUNDED Mr. and Mrs. G. Sharp, of Payneham, have received word that their third son, Private W. Sharp, has been again wounded in action. Wally was wounded only a few months ago and spent 17 days in hospital. Residents learned with regret of his second misfortune in such a short period.’
By March ’43 Wally had left the dust and action of the Middle East and arrived back in Australia via Melbourne as a vaunted Rat of Tobruk. Following brief leave, Wally trained in Queensland before heading over to Milne Bay. He was soon detached for special duties as part of an advanced party for over a month before re-joining the 2/48th. Norm Badman also served in New Guinea at a similar time to Wally. Several of his letters home were published in the local papers. He wrote:
‘I am once again back with the old Battalion, and it was a thrill to see so many of the old pals, and to get such a warm welcome from them. The weather has, been a distinct contrast to what it was last year. Then the weather was beautiful during the day but fairly cold at night. This year it has been dull and cloudy with a lot of fine drizzling rain, and the nights have been comparatively warm.’ He also wrote of the 2/48th football teams which featured local player, Wally Sharp who excelled being ‘very fast, a beautiful mark, and quite a good kick.’ Also mentioned was a Battalion football team which would play on Saturdays to avoid clashing with football. He added ‘I don’t know how good our team will be-as I have not seen anybody play in a match, but again it might interest people to know that Doug. Richardson, son of Vic Richardson, is captain.’
Wally returned to Australia via Townsville in February the following year for leave. However, by May ’44 and within weeks of each other, Wally received several Absent Without Leave charges, the second for 18 days. All three attracted heavy financial fines of loss of pay and Field Punishment disciplinary action. These preceded a diagnosis in October ’44 that Wally had a challenging heart defect where his aortic valve failed to close efficiently, causing a leakage of blood (aortic regurgitation), a potentially fatal condition. With hindsight, the condition was almost inevitably the main contributor to his fatigue and absences.
Wally was eventually discharged as medically unfit for service in December ’44. He and Gwenda Rowett of Payneham became engaged the following year, then married in April ’47 at the Kent Town Methodist Church. On January 2nd their premature baby son was born at Monreith Private Hospital.
Wally pre-deceased his father and aged 42, died on the 28th September ’63. His remains are at Centennial Park Cemetery in Plot RSL Wall 134 Niche D014. His wife Gwenda lived for a further 43 years. She died in 2006 and was buried near Wally at Centennial Park, Rose bed 1 Position 40. Wally’s father George lived to be 80 and died in September ’74 almost exactly 11 years after Wally.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133 2/48th Battalion.