Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#3934  WARMINGTON  Walter James          49th Infantry Battalion
 
Walter Warmington was born in Brisbane, the only son of Joseph and Ellen Warmington. The family moved to Degilbo to take up farming interests while Walter was still young. Once Walter was old enough, he left school to work on the family farm.
 
Walter enlisted in Brisbane on 21st September 1915. He stated he was 28 years old and gave his address as Degilbo, Gayndah Line. Walter named his father, Joseph Warmington of Degilbo as his next of kin. He reported to Enoggera Camp where he was placed in a depot battalion before being allocated as part of the 9th reinforcements for the 25th Battalion.
The 9th reinforcements boarded the “Wandilla” in Brisbane on 31st January 1916 bound for Egypt. While in a transit camp, Walter contracted mumps and was hospitalized in the 6th Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo. By the time that Walter was discharged, the 25th Battalion which he was supposed to join had left Egypt and was already in France.
 
Walter was reassigned to the 49th Battalion, a new battalion that had been created by taking a core of experienced soldiers who were Gallipoli veterans from the 9th Battalion and supplementing the numbers with new recruits such as Walter. In early June, the 49th Battalion crossed the Mediterranean to Marseilles and then travelled by train to the rear areas of the Western Front around Strazeele. While in this sector, Walter was charged with neglect of duty and being improperly dressed. He was fined a day’s pay.
 
The four divisions of the AIF that were in France (one division was in training in England) had arrived in time for the beginning of the great summer offensive of 1916 that General Douglas Haig had planned to commence along the shallow valley of the Somme River. The new battalions of the British conscript army walked toward the German machine guns and field guns on 1st July 1916. Casualties were horrific; 60,000 on the first day, 20,000 of which were fatal.
 
In spite of the losses, Haig ordered his troops to push on against the well-entrenched German defenders. The 1st Australian Division of the AIF was called into the battle on the 24th July with the task of taking the village of Pozieres. On 29th July, the 2nd Division was given the task of following up the gains made four days before. By the first week in August, the Australians had succeeded in capturing two lines of trenches and a blockhouse which stood on the crest of a ridge. German counter attacks and heavy artillery bombardment made holding the positions very difficult and the 49th battalion, as part of the 4th Division was put into the line to deepen trenches, construct new communication saps and generally endure the pounding of the artillery.
 
After a stint of several days in the line, the 49th was withdrawn to camps at Tara Hill to reorganise for the next phase of the battle. A short distance from Pozieres along the line of the ridge was a substantial farm complex which was marked on the maps as Ferme de Mouquet or Mouquet Farm. The farm buildings had been reduced to rubble by artillery but the large cellars, which the Germans had expanded and strengthened presented a formidable obstacle. The approach line for attacking troops was along a shallow depression which grew increasingly narrow. The depression was enfiladed on three sides by machine gun posts and the ground was so churned up from constant artillery that any trenches that were dug soon collapsed.
 
On 1st September, the 49th Battalion in conjunction with three other battalions of the 13th Brigade, moved up to take up positions in front of Mouquet Farm in preparation for an assault timed for 3:00 am on the 3rdSeptember. The battalion war diary records that as the Commanding Officer of the 49th attempted to place his companies in the jumping off trench, he found the trench already occupied by another battalion from the 13th Brigade. His entreaties fell on deaf ears and the other battalion refused to budge, jeopardising the success of the attack. To make things worse, halfway through the advance, the battalion covering the 49th’s right flank withdrew, leaving the 49th exposed.
 
In spite of the gallant efforts by the Australians, the farm could not be taken. When the 49th withdrew into the rear areas, a roll call determined that the battalion had lost 90 men killed or missing and 300 wounded. One of those killed on 3rd September 1916 was Walter Warmington.
 
Like many casualties at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm, Walter’s remains were never recovered. His family back at Degilbo wrote to the authorities on several occasions requesting information about his death and the whereabouts of his personal effects. In reply to these requests, Base Records in Melbourne were unable to furnish any details.
Walter’s father signed for his son’s war medals and memorial plaque, by which time the family had moved to West End in Brisbane.
 
In a belated acknowledgement to the more than 10,000 Australians who lost their lives in France but have no known grave, the Australian Government constructed the Australian National Memorial on a hill above the village of Villers Bretonneux. The memorial which records the names and details of the missing on stone tablets was dedicated by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1938, just in time for the site become a battlefield again in the Second World War.

Walter James WARMINGTON was born on 4th July, 1888 in Brisbane, Queensland

His parents were Joseph Frederick WARMINGTON and Ellen WORTH