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Walker-L-R-F-Pte-3517

Page history last edited by Lenore Frost 3 years, 5 months ago

Volunteers of Essendon and Flemington, 1914-1918

Walker L R F Pte 3517 Lionel Rupert Fox 14 Inf Bn 22 Barber Single C of E

Address: Essendon, Buckley St, 87

Next of Kin: Walker, H, father, 87 Buckley St, Essendon

Enlisted: 19 Jul 1915

Embarked: A71 Nestor 11 Oct 1915

Relatives on Active Service:

Walker-C-H-Pte-439 brother

Date of Death: 04/09/1916

CWGC: "Son of Henry Alfred and Isabella Frances Walker, of 53, Spruson St., North Sydney, New South Wales. Born at Brunswick, Victoria".

SERRE ROAD CEMETERY No.1

Private Lionel Rupert Fox Walker

Rod Martin

On 19 July 1915, twenty-one year-old hairdresser Lionel Walker enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces. He was one of the record 36 575 men who signed up that month, influenced by an effective government propaganda campaign, the ‘barbarous’ sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania by the Germans in April of that year, or just their own personal wishes, and not yet deterred by the growing numbers of casualties from Gallipoli. To obtain more men, the government had liberalised the physical selection criteria, reducing the minimum height and chest requirements. Standing only 166 centimetres tall, weighing only forty-nine kilos and having a chest expansion of only eighty-four centimetres, Lionel may well have wished to enlist at the outbreak of war the previous year but knew that he would not ‘pass muster’. If this were the case, the changed circumstances by the middle of 1915 gave him his chance.

Lionel was assigned to 11 reinforcements of 14 Infantry Battalion, and completed his training at Seymour, Ballarat and Broadmeadows. On 11 October that year, he and his comrades sailed for Egypt on A71 HMAT Nestor.

HMAT Nestor at Port Melbourne, 2 October 1916 (AWM PB0640)

Lionel was in Egypt by 4 November that year. Unfortunately, we know this because his record indicates that he was hospitalised in Abbassia, a suburb of Cairo, suffering from a venereal disease. He was there for almost four months, no doubt receiving what in those days was very painful treatment. On 1 March 1916, he was transferred to a venereal detention hospital and was discharged, presumably cured, nine days later.

For unknown reasons, Lionel was transferred to 4 Division Pioneer Battalion on his return to the training base at Tel el Kebir. In the reorganisation and enlargement of the Australian Army in January 1916, 14 Battalion was allotted to 4 Division, so Lionel would still be close to his comrades. They sailed together for France in early June that year, headed for the Western Front. Whether it was as a result of his request or not, Lionel was transferred to 52 Battalion (also in 4 Division) on 16 July. At that time, the division was in training, located at Halloy Les Pernois, north of the Somme River. It stayed there until the end of the month, beginning a move towards Pozières on the Somme at the start of August. An attack on the ruins of Pozières village had begun on 23 July, led by 1 Division. The aim was to capture the village and the ridge behind it, and thus place the German stronghold at Thiepval under threat. By the time 4 Division became involved, 2 Division had captured both objectives, but at a combined 1- 2 Division cost of 12 131 casualties. On 6 August, 4 Division was ordered to advance towards Thiepval and the German stronghold in the way called Mouquet Farm. By 15 August, it had suffered 4 649 casualties for no result. The farm contained underground defences that made it almost impregnable. 52 Battalion, being part of 13 Brigade, did not participate in this initial attack. Instead, it remained in reserve in the nearby La Boiselles area, preparing and waiting to be used. After 15 August, what Richard Travers calls a ‘crazy’ rotation of divisions occurred, first 1 Division replacing 4, then 2 replacing 1 on 22 August. By the twenty-sixth, 2 division had actually reached Mouquet Farm, but could not hold it, suffering 1 268 casualties in the murderous process. Then came 4 Division’s turn again, this time involving Lionel and his comrades. After reconnoitring between 31 August and 2 September, the battalion was ordered to attack and it moved into the front line trenches.

Looking towards Mouquet Farm from Pozières (AWM E00005)

The men began their assault at 5.14 am on 3 September, one delivered, according to the official report, ‘with much spirit and dash and in some cases a short, but fierce and bloody hand to hand conflict ensued, Bayonets and rifle butts coming into free play.’

Initially the attackers seized their objectives. However, the Germans fought back and a number of the attacking companies were scattered and ceased to be recognised as units. By midday, only thirty 52 Battalion men could be seen in the vicinity of one of the objectives. The carnage was considerable.

It was during this chaotic battle that 52 Battalion lost fifty per cent of its strength. One of those killed was Lionel Walker.

Mouquet Farm 1916 (AWM E0006)

The reports about his death are hazy. He was initially reported missing, as a soldier reported to the Red Cross that he had seen Lionel at Mouquet Farm, badly wounded. Later, in 1921, Lionel’s father informed Base Records in Melbourne that a returned 52 Battalion man had told him that the men were retreating when Lionel went missing. The man could not say if he was killed or wounded.

Lionel’s body could not be found. In April 1917, an official board declared him killed in action and, even by 1921, Base Records was informing the father that there was no trace of his body. However, some time in early 1924, Lionel’s body was discovered and identified by the disc that was around his neck. The Army sent the disc to his mother as a memento (his father died in 1922).

Lionel was buried in Serre Road No. 1 Cemetery, twenty kilometres south of Arras in France.

(Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

4 Division never did capture Mouquet Farm, despite having driven the salient to its farthest extent. For its pains, it lost another 2 409 men, leading to a total of 7 058 – almost a third of the total Australian casualties on the Somme front in 1916.

The division went on to fight in 1917 and 1918. After the war, a memorial was erected to recognise its combined losses since 1916.