Finding the family of Arthur Walters has proved quite
difficult. It took me several days to find the one key piece of information
that I needed to make the story unfolded.
3294 Arthur Leslie Walters was a 20 year old from
South Australia
when he enlisted in August 1915. He was allocated to 27th Battalion, AIF.
Arthur was the son of Charles and Annie
Walters who were originally from Scotland. Charles worked for many
years with SA railways as a Station Master.
This is Charles’ obituary:
Mr. Charles
Walters, who died at his residence, Brighton, was born at Truro, Cornwall, 80
years ago, and came to South Australia in the sailing ship Afgan in 1879.
Before leaving the old country he was employed by the Great Western and
Great Northern Railway Companies of Great Britain. Shortly after
he arrived here he joined the South Australian railway service as signalman,
and eventually became a first-class stationmaster. He was in charge at Bugle Ranges
(10 years), Penola, SE.(7 years), Mount
Barker (10 years), and North Adelaide (11 years) making a total of 37 years as
stationmaster. He leaves a widow, one son (Mr. C. N. Walter, of Colac, Victoria), and one daughter (Mrs. E. Victor, of Perth). Another
son, Arthur, was killed in action at Mont St. Quentin.
France,
in 1918. There are four grandchildren.
Source: http://saobits.gravesecrets.net/w-x.htmlArthur fought in France but his service record provides considerably more detail about periods of hospitalisation for Bronchitis, Trench Foot and VD than the fighting he was involved in. Arthur was killed in action on 2 September 1918.
This photo of Arthur is sourced from http://www.ww1sa.gravesecrets.net/wa---wal.html
This missing person report from the Red Cross provides a first hand account of Arthur’s death.
Source:
Arthur was buried where he was killed but later exhumed and reburied in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension.
From Charles’ obituary, I had two leads on Arthur’s siblings. A Mr C. N Walter of Colac and Mrs E Victor of Perth. Using the electoral rolls I found Charles Montague Walters in Colac and by searching back through some birth records I established that this was the son of Charles and Annie. The obituary had the initials wrong and the surname misspelt.
Charles Montague Walters was married to Olive Mayira Osbourne and they had two daughters. Charles was an hotelier and held the license for several hotels in Victoria. In 1938 Charles moved to Sydney but left his family in Melbourne. 4 months after arriving in Sydney, Charles drowned while swimming at Bondi Beach.
This is the newspaper report:
Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17428334
Two men who pulled Charles from the ocean were later awarded lifesaving medals:
Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17477141
I lost track of
Olive and her daughter’s in the 1940s. Charles and Olive did have a son, also
named Charles, who died as an infant.
So with the
Walters trail gone cold I looked at Arthur’s sister Mrs E Victor of Perth. This limited information
proved impossible to determine exactly who I was looking for, as there were
numerous people by this name. After several unsuccessful hours of searching I
came across this death notice for Arthur:
Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57546708
It was in this
notice that I found the key. Arthur’s sister is listed as Mrs E. E. Victor of
Fitzroy. A search of the electoral rolls gave me the names Ernest Edwin and
Florence Mabel Gladys Victor. A check of the Victorian marriage records
provided the proof that Florence’s
maiden name was Walters and the child of Charles and Annie. It didn’t take long
to follow Ernest and Florence to Perth as mentioned in
Charles’ obituary. Ernest died in 1935 and Florence died in 1949.
From there I
quickly followed the Victor line to Florence Kathleen Victor who married
Wyndham John Mitchell. Their sons are Peter and David. From the electoral rolls,
I had David’s middle initial and his wife’s name. A quick check of the White
Pages provided a phone number in WA. I cold called David and sure enough, I had
the person I was looking for. David is Arthur’s great nephew.
Thank you very
much to Lorrie M who sent me Arthur’s medal after seeing the Anzac Day story on ACA. The retuned medal tally is now 1272.
Post update 29 May 2013
The other day I visited the AWM and took a photo of Arthur's name on the Roll of Honour.
I am sure lorrie will be pleased with the outcome. Stirling job as always ... a credit to Australia :)
ReplyDeleteGod you are a wonder...my research was so unimaginative...you must have a mind like a corkscrew.
ReplyDeleteA bit spooky that the medal has ended up back in Perth
Very grateful to you for completing my task...now all I have left to ponder is how did we get the medal in the first place
Lorrie M
Perth