Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Wallace Edward DUNN SX6958
Born at Wayville on the 8th November 1913, Wallace was the son of Albert Edward Leopold and Ellen Ann (Nellie) Dunn. The couple had four daughters and four sons; Edina, Lois, Robert (Bert). Hilda, Archer, Marjorie, Wallace, Ivan and Maurice. The family lived at Park Terrace, now re-named Greenhill Road on the border of the Adelaide Parklands and in close walking distance of both the Keswick barracks and the Wayville Showgrounds.
Tragedy seemed to plague the family. When Wallace was three, his sister, Marjorie Florence, born the year prior to him, died in July 1916. It was a devastating blow to the family. Less than two years later, his older sister, Edina Olive died in the Adelaide Hospital in November, 1920 just 19 years old. A talented musician and teacher at Walkerville School, she was also a member of the Maughan Church Choir and also a highly respected Sunday School teacher. The ‘Australian Christian Commonwealth’ newspaper reported at her funeral that ‘Dr Richards spoke of her devotion and ability as a teacher. The choir gallery was decorated with flowers and the deceased’s chair was left vacant. I think that l never saw the choir members so moved as over this sad event.’ The family lived at Park Terrace, now MLC
Just prior to Wallace’s 20th birthday, tragedy struck again in September 1933 when his second sister, Lois Marion also died in tragic circumstance. The Advertiser reported her collapse in a chemist shop and being taken by ambulance to hospital where she was unable to be revived. All three sisters were buried in a family plot at the West Terrace Cemetery. For the deeply religious family this was a severe blow.
Wallace became a baker until the outbreak of WWII. Just prior to enlisting he had a minor brush with the law in April ’40 when he was caught and fined £2 with 11/- costs for ‘having failed to yield the right of way’. However apart from this small indiscretion he lived a very respectable life as a well-regarded young man. 26-year-old Wallace volunteered to enlist on the 18th June, 1940 at what is now the Wayville Showgrounds. He was allocated the number SX6958 and was assigned to the newly formed 2/48th Battalion. Initial days were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, before he and the other new enlistees headed to Woodside for their preliminary training.
After brief leave with his family, the large contingent of young men with whom he had enlisted then embarked on the Stratheden for the Middle East on the 7th November 1940. They disembarked on the 17th December, then his 2/48th Battalion completed a few months training in Cyrenaica before going to Tobruk at the start of April 1941. The dust, flies, heat, minimal water supplies and constant enemy bombardment was quite a challenge to these fresh new enlistees.
Having been in the Middle East for just four months, 27-year-old Wallace was killed in action on the 18th April 1941. John G Glenn in his book ‘Tobruk to Tarakan’ describes conditions that Wallace faced. ‘The whole day B Company was again harassed by very accurate mortar fire. One mortar bomb made a direct hit on the pit occupied by the stretcher bearers and a B Company driver, who were waiting to go forward to tend to the wounded. Five of them were killed and two were wounded, one of them dying later in the day.’ Eventually 209 had to be evacuated, and No 1 Section of 10 Platoon, who had stuck it out all day, withdrew. Privates Bob Christie and George Dickinson made a run for it, after being pinned down for hours, and managed to make company headquarters just as it was hit by a mortar. George Dickinson was killed outright; Bob Christie was so seriously wounded that he later died of wounds.’ This was in attempts to retain Hill 209 which was subjected to intense mortar, machine gun, and artillery fire forcing B company to keep undercover.’
Wallace’s record indicates that he was buried by his fellow comrades in Grave Number 169 in the Tobruk War Cemetery the following day. The inscription on his headstone now reads ‘Peace Perfect Peace’. He rests in Plot III, Row K with Privates Carl Bahnisch, George Dickinson, Edward Hextall and George Havers, all from the 2/48th Battalion, and killed on the same day.
Back home, The Chronicle carried the news of his death and others who also were killed ‘Pte. G. H. Dickinson, SX7649, Inf., Peterborough; Pte. Wallace E. Dunn, SX6958, Inf., Wayville; Pte. Edward G. Hextall, SX8285, Inf., Auburn; Pte. Frederick MacNamara, SX7418, Inf., Kingston; Pte. Alan I. Riebe, SX9241, Inf., Waikerie; Pte. Colin S. Tucker, SX8578, Inf., Redfern; Pte. Lionel H. Van Den. Brink, SX7279, Inf., Richmond.’
Having already lost three of their children, the family shared the sad news of Wallace’s death in The Chronicle om Thursday 8 May 1941, ‘DUNN.—On the 18th of April, killed in action, Private Wallace Edward Dunn, 2nd A.I.F., third dearly loved son of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. L. Dunn, 157 Park Terrace, Wayville.’
Five years later, Wallace’s mother, aged 68 Nellie died in November, 1946. She had been the glue that held the remaining family together; her surviving married daughter Hilda Dodd and remaining sons, Robert, Archer, Ivan and Maurice. Following her funeral she was interred with her three daughters. Wallace’s father, Albert lived to be 80 and died in December 1956.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133 2/48th Battalion.