Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born at Semaphore on the 25th August 1917 Bill was rarely called Dudley, but was affectionally known as ‘Bill’ or ‘Andy’.
As a young man, Bill worked as a labourer, meeting Ella Rita Teer (Rita) who worked at the Excelsior Hotel in Broken Hill. The two later married and moved to Verdun, originally called Grunthal (German for ‘Green Valley’) a town in the Adelaide Hills first settled by Prussian settlers who had come to South Australia for safety and freedom of worship. Like several other towns with Germanic names, Grunthal was renamed Verdun (in honour of the WWI Battle of Verdun) as were other South Australian towns with Germanic names during WWI.
The young couple eagerly anticipated the arrival of their first child, but distressingly, their baby daughter was stillborn in April ’39 at Verdun. They continued to be involved in the community with Bill acting as ‘Father Christmas’, personally calling on over 100 of the town’s children to distribute presents, books and sweets. This was the innovative solution to an outbreak of measles among the children during the festive season, causing the annual school Christmas tree celebrations to be cancelled.
The following year, aged 22, Dudley enlisted to serve in WWII on the 21st June, ‘40, becoming SX6030 with the 2/48th Battalion. His young wife, Rita headed back to to visit her friends at ‘The Hill’, staying in the Topar Hotel. Meanwhile, Bill’s initial days were spent in the cold of the Pavilions, now part of the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds, before he and other new enlistees moved to the Hills region, to Woodside for preliminary training.
During pre-embarkation leave, over 100 of the local Verdun community crowded into the school room to farewell the recent batch of enlistees. The singing of the National Anthem was followed by a welcome from the Patriotic Club then community singing, and an unusual general knowledge test followed as part of the entertainment. It resulted in a draw. The new soldiers were wished a speedy and safe return before each was presented with a memento and a wallet containing a sum of money. Bill, Walter Stewein SX7933 and Henry Aubert SX8734 of the 2/48th Battalion and Vernon Rason, SX5512 of the 2/43rd, John Vincent SX9244 of the 2/4th Battalion and Rosley Pilmore SX8409 of the 27th Battalion were also given a parcel from the Patriotic Club with Vernon responding on the enlistees’ behalf. The evening concluded with the singing of "For they are Jolly Good Fellows" and a typical country supper.
Bill and his fellow 2/48th Battalion members boarded the Stratheden for the Middle East, on the 7th November 1940 and disembarked on the 17th December. While at Gaza Ridge in January ’41, Bill was one of several men who contracted mumps so was hospitalised for a fortnight. The 2/48th Battalion completing a few months training in Cyrenaica. The next stop was Tobruk at the start of April 1941 where the dust, flies, heat, minimal water supplies and constant bombardment were quite a challenge to these fresh new enlistees.
Whilst on leave in the Middle East, Bill and many of his fellow soldiers was able to do some sightseeing of the biblical Jerusalem. His reaction reflected that of so many who had only read about or imagined the ancient sites. In contrast, Dudley was also quite proficient in cartooning drawings and became renowned for his illustration of Hitler der schwein (the pig).
War and accidents inevitably happen. John Glenn in Tobruk to Tarakan puts in context the conditions under which Bill was fighting and how unintended accidents could occur. ‘Conditions in the Salient were particularly bad, and at night cases of heat exhaustion had to be evacuated from the forward posts. This was the fifth month of siege and conditions were telling on the men. To add to this there was a marked increase in enemy fire from mortars, artillery and machine guns, and our casualties were mounting.’ He added ‘The battalion experienced the worst sandstorm since its arrival inside Tobruk. Airente was noted for its sandstorms and its fleas..’ A Court of Enquiry was held in August ’41 following an incident but fortunately found that neither Bill or other soldiers were negligent and there was no misconduct on the part of those involved.
Bill received quite rapid promotions from Corporal to Sergeant within a year until by March,’43 he was back home in Australia on leave. The following week the Verdun locals organised a welcome home social for Sergeants Stewein and Dudley W. Anderson, Privates Len. Burgoyne SX1015, Henry Aubert SX8734, James Mc Mutrie SX7660 all from the 2/48th Battalion and other young men from different battalions. Several speeches were made before a two minutes' silence was observed in memory of fallen comrades. Some of the soldiers responded before ‘For They are Jolly Good Fellows’ was sung, preceding a generous supper.
Unfortunately, whilst training in Queensland Bill contracted a high fever requiring him to be hospitalised April ’45. Conditions with soldiers away from home were not always conducive to the longevity of marriages and Bill’s floundered, sadly ending in divorce in July ’46 from Ella Rita. Bill immediately changed his next of kin details to a Queensland friend, A. Goodman who lived on a property named Morganberry via Mareeba.
Finally, with the war coming to a successful end, Bill was eventually discharged on the 11th September ’45 from the 2/1st Depot and moved to live at Christies Beach.
Aged 65, Dudley died on the 29th May ’83. He is buried at Centennial Park in the Services Family Rose Bed 1 Position 001.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes SX8133, 2/48th Battalion