The life of Private Walter Lindley was cut short when it abruptly ended in the killing fields of Flanders amidst the ‘Third Battle of Ypres’, now acknowledged as ’Passchendaele’, in 1917.[1] The same year World War One broke out, 1914, he married, his first daughter was born, and his brother died on the Western Front. He was one of more than 330,000 volunteers who served in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) overseas resulting in over 61,000 deaths.[2] Amongst other reasons, he likely volunteered for the patriotic cause. Some photos and postcards survived and in addition to his war records, they underpinned his life in the AIF.
Walter was born between 1892-1894 in Balby, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England to John Lindley and Adelaide Lewis.[3] When he was about seven years, his father died.[4] In 1910, he enlisted in the British Navy and about three years later he did a runner in Sydney.[5] The next year, Sarah Lovett became his wife, in Port Melbourne.[6] Then within six months, on 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany.[7] Australians reacted ‘with the most complete and enthusiastic harmony’.[8] Then, in September, Adelaide was born.[9]
In 1916, Walter’s life took on a different direction. Firstly, his second daughter, Myrtle, was born.[10] Next, a conscription referendum was announced which divided Australia “manifesting the fears, doubts, and imbalances of Australian thought”.[11] On 28 October 1916, the first referendum was defeated by only 3.2% of the votes.[12] A majority of Victorians voted yes.[13] English-born voters likely voted yes in contrast to the working class.[14] Even still, his vote was private, personal and individualistic.[15] The failed referendum provided a ‘boost’ of approximately 5,000 volunteers in November.[16]
Consequently, eleven days later, on 8 November 1916, Walter enlisted in the AIF.[17] He was 23 years and 6 months, and 5 feet and 10 ½ inches tall, meeting the standards.[18] His occupation was a Gripman at the Tramways.[19] Even though previously, he had served in the British Navy and had a sailor tattoo, his service record was not noted.[20] Perhaps, the death of his brother, Trooper John William Lindley, who served in the British Army was a motivator to enlist.[21] ‘Local and personal factors’ normally were the main reasons to enlist ‘during the latter part of the war’.[22] Certainly, patriotism to defend Britain and a ‘free’ journey there to visit family were incentives.[23]
Walter was appointed to the 8th reinforcements of the 57th Australian Infantry Battalion.[25] Training started at the Royal Park camp, Victoria.[26] Before he embarked, he had a portrait made in uniform (see figure 1), obviously as a keepsake for his family.[27] His children were only twenty-six months and seven months when he left Melbourne on the HMAT Medic A7 on 16 December 1916.[28]
After a voyage of two months and sailing into 1917, Walter arrived in Plymouth, England, and proceeded to the 15th Training Battalion at Hurdcott.[29] One day in April, he was ‘Absent without Leave’ and docked five shillings.[30] In figure 2, the postcard from nearby Fovant depicted a soldier and illustrated the distance between him and Sarah and his love for her.[31]
In Biefvillers, France, Walter joined X Platoon, C Company, 57th Battalion, 15th Brigade of the 5th Australian Division in June 1917.[33] Sir Douglas Haig, ‘Field Marshall’ of the British Army, planned to push back the Germans to the Belgian ports preventing the launch of German submarines.[34] The ‘Third Battle of Ypres’ lingered from 31 July 1917 to 10 November 1917.[35] In preparation, extensive training was planned which involved Walter.[36]
According to the 57th Battalion War Diaries, Walter spent more time in training than on the battlefield.[37] He stayed in tents and billets.[38] He completed trenches and ‘wire entanglements’.[39] He marched in Battalion, Church, and ‘Marching Out’ Parades.[40] He marched in ‘Route’ Marches between towns and villages like Contay, Toutencourt, and Herissart.[41] He likely suffered sore feet and wore out boots due to the long marches.[42] Walter participated in Battalion lines, camp, billet, kit, rifle, feet, and boot inspections, and checked equipment.[43] He trained in platoon, ‘musketry’ and ‘bayonet fighting’, ‘fire practice’, ‘Assault at Arms’, ‘gas drill’, ‘close order drill’, and battlefield techniques like ‘Platoon Tactical’, ‘Bite and Hold’ and ‘Trench to Trench attack’.[44] Lectures were given on ‘barrages’, ‘messages’ and ‘reports’, patrols, ‘wood fighting’, ‘Trench to Trench attack’, ‘fire orders’ and ‘fire control’, and the ‘Enemy’s latest Tactics’.[45] C Company competed in the ‘Field Firing Scheme’ at Thiepval and won.[46] Sports like cricket, football, and soccer were usually played in the afternoons.[47] The 5th Division held a ‘Military Tournament’ attended by His Majesty King George V who the soldiers cheered.[48]
In his postcards, Walter expressed his concern for Sarah and their children, thus connecting him with his civilian and soldier lives, and the life he ‘put on hold’.[49] He wrote, “I am pleased you are getting some money from that place you told me, you use your nut Dear & get as much as you can out of them”.[50] He wished the “Postie would hurry up and bring” the photo of his daughters, and the arrival of the photos would have boosted his morale.[51] He wrote about their future together in a bigger house for when he comes “home again”.[52] And, she waited.[53]
The day before the Battle of Polygon Wood, Walter and C Company started on reserve.[54] Then, they carried mainly ammunition and water closer to the front.[55] On 26 September 1917, the 57th Battalion was one of the battalions that moved forward in battlefield formation under the ‘creeping barrage’.[56] Various accounts were reported of Walter being killed in action (KIA), and it was possibly during the advance near Glencorse Wood when he and Private Robert Smith were on fatigue abutting a pillbox and a High Explosive shell exploded killing them.[57]
Although the objective was achieved, casualties were high.[58] Walter was one of 35 killed the same day from the 57th Battalion.[59] He was one of 1,730 Australians in the 4th and 5th Divisions ‘lost’ and over 15,000 British casualties in the Battle of Polygon Wood.[60] Inconceivably, it denoted ‘a cost of nearly 4,400 casualties per square mile’.[61] He was one of 10,107 Australians and 70,000 British killed in the Third Battle of Ypres.[62] Overall, the contention is that ‘Passchendaele’ was a ‘futile’ campaign; however, World War One exemplified “the survival of the liberal democracies of Western Europe”.[63]
His widow requested a ‘certificate of report’ for Walter’s death from the AIF.[64] His sister, Annie Lindley, of Yorkshire, wrote to the Red Cross seeking details and she “would be thankful for any news”.[65] Her last news was the day before he was killed.[66] ‘Rumours’ reached his mother that he was alive.[67] It must have been a very difficult time for them. And, they waited.[68] His brother-in-law, Private William Lovett, enquired too.[69] In the Weekly Times, he appeared in the ‘Roll of Honour’.[70] Even though, the elation of Armistice Day on 11 November 1918 emerged, correspondence continued.[71]
The Tramways offered his job back; however, ‘disappeared’ was noted.[73] In Balby, he and his brother were commemorated on a memorial at St. John the Evangelist, see figure 3.[74] At the Australian War Memorial, he was remembered on a panel in the Commemorative Area.[75] He had no known grave, instead, he was one of 54,613 missing fallen soldiers commemorated on the ‘Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial’ in Belgium.[76] He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.[77]
Tragically, Walter never returned home to his wife and children in Australia nor his family in Yorkshire. On 26 September 1917, he, like many casualties, was KIA during the Battle of Polygon Wood.[78] He served nine months overseas in the AIF, mostly in training. He likely volunteered for patriotic reasons for the British Empire. Even still, his daughter, Adelaide, mourned him deeply, she was three when he was killed and treasured his postcards.[79] He, like tens of thousands, stays missing in the fields of Flanders and his name remains inscribed on Menin Gate in Ypres.
Bibliography
‘1901 England Census’, Original Data: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901, The National Archives, Ancestry, Accessed 23 March 2018
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries, ‘29th Australian Infantry Battalion’, July 1917 and September 1917, AWM4 23/46/24 and 23/46/26, Australian War Memorial.
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries, ‘30th Australian Infantry Battalion’, July 1917 and September 1917, AWM4 23/47/24 and 23/47/26, Australian War Memorial.
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries, ‘57th Australian Infantry Battalion’, May 1917 to October 1917, AWM4 23/74/16 - 23/74/21, Australian War Memorial.
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries, ‘58th Australian Infantry Battalion’, July 1917 and September 1917, AWM4 23/75/18 and 23/75/20, Australian War Memorial.
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries, ‘59th Australian Infantry Battalion’, July 1917 and September 1917, AWM4 23/76/18 and 23/76/20, Australian War Memorial.
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries, ‘60th Australian Infantry Battalion’, July 1917 and September 1917, AWM4 23/77/18 and 23/76/20, Australian War Memorial.
Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files, First World War, 1914-1918, IDRL/0428, Australian War Memorial.
Australian War Memorial, ‘57th Australian Infantry Battalion’, Accessed 2 March 2018.
Australian War Memorial, ‘Deaths as a result of service with Australian units’, Accessed 20 March 2018
Australian War Memorial, ‘Enlistment Standards', Accessed 20 March 2018.
Australian War Memorial, ‘First World War 1914-18’, Accessed 2 March 2018.
Australian War Memorial, ‘Hurdcott Camp, near Fovant, Wiltshire, England’, Accessed 19 March 2018.
Australian War Memorial, ‘The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) badges 1914-1918’, Accessed 3 March 2018.
Bean, Charles Edwin Woodrow, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Volume IV: The Australian Imperial Force in France: 1917, 11th edn., Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1941.
Beaumont, Joan, ‘Australia’, in 1914-1918-online, International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2015-03-18, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10581, Accessed 20 March 2018.
Beaumont, Joan, ‘Australians and the Great War: Battles, the Home Front, and Memory’, Teaching History, Vol. 49, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 20-27.
Beaumont, Joan, Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, Crows Nest NSW, Allen & Unwin, 2014.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ‘Private Lindley, Walter’, Accessed 19 March 2018.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ‘Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial’, Accessed 19 March 2018.
Damousi, Joy, ‘Mourning Practices’, in Jay Winter, ed., The Cambridge History of the First World War: Vol. III: Civil Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, pp. 359-384.
Employment record, Metropolitan Transit Authority.
‘England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index 1837-1915’, Original Data: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, Ancestry, Accessed 17 March 2018.
First World War Embarkation Rolls, AWM8, Australian War Memorial.
First World War Nominal Roll, AWM133, Australian War Memorial.
Fletcher, Anthony, ‘A New Moral Order’, History Today, Vol. 64, Issue 8, 2014, pp. 26-33.
Gammage, Bill, The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1974.
Hindley, Krissy, Memorial at St John the Evangelist, Balby, Church of England, 2006, digital image, original in photographer’s collection.
Jobson, Keith H., ‘First AIF Enlistment Patterns and Reasons for their Variation’, Australian Defence Force Journal, No. 132, 1998, pp. 61-66.
Jones, Spencer, ‘Ypres, Battles of’, in 1914-1918-online, International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2015-02-13, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10552, Accessed 23 February 2018.
Latimer, W. B., Walter Lindley, date unknown, believed 1916, image, Personal collection.
McKernan, Michael, Australians at Home: World War I, Scoresby, Victoria, The Five Mile Press, 2014.
Meyer, Jessica, ‘Writing Home: Men’s Letters from the Front’, in Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2009, pp. 14-46.
Mullett, Albert J., ‘Orders for Australian Imperial Force’, Melbourne, Government Printer, 1916.
National Archives of Australia, ‘Discovering Anzacs’, Accessed 3 March 2018.
National Archives of Australia, ‘Discovering Anzacs: Timeline’, Accessed 3 March 2018.
National Library of Australia, ‘Keepsakes: Australians and the Great War’, Accessed 3 March 2018.
Prior, Robin and Wilson, Trevor, Passchendaele: The Untold Story, 3rd edn., New Haven, United States, Yale University Press, 2016.
Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria.
Roll of Honour, AWM145, Australian War Memorial.
Salmon, J., Hearty Greetings from Fovant, postcard, date unknown, believed 1917, Personal collection.
Service Records, B2455, National Archives of Australia.
Shute, Carmel, ‘Heroines and Heroes: Sexual Mythology in Australia 1914-18’, in Joy Damousi and Marilyn Lake, eds., Gender and War: Australians at War in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 23-42.
State Library of Victoria, ‘Where the Australians Rest’, Accessed 1 February 2018.
The Age.
The AIF Project, ‘Walter Lindley’, UNSW Australia, Accessed 3 March 2018.
The Argus.
Thomson, Alistair, ‘Anzac Stories: Using Personal Testimony in War History’, War & Society, Vol. 25, Issue 2, 2006, pp. 1-21.
‘UK, Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939’, Original Data: Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, Ancestry, Accessed 17 March 2018.
‘UK, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929’, Original Data: Soldiers’ Effects Records, 1901-60, Ancestry, Accessed 8 March 2018.
Wadsley, John, ‘Dear Everybody at Home: A Tasmanian’s Letters from the Great War’, Sabretache, Vol. 44, Issue 4, 2005, pp. 11-14.
Weekly Times.
Westerman, William, ‘Warfare 1914-1918 (Australia)’, in 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2016-03-02, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10849, Accessed 20 March 2018.
Notes
[1] Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, Passchendaele: The Untold Story, 3rd edn., New Haven, United States, Yale University Press, 2016, p. xiii.
[2] Australian War Memorial, ‘Deaths as a result of service with Australian units’, Accessed 20 March 2018; and Joan Beaumont, ‘Australia’, in 1914-1918-online, International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2015-03-18, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10581, Accessed 20 March 2018; and Keith H. Jobson, ‘First AIF Enlistment Patterns and Reasons for their Variation’, Australian Defence Force Journal, No. 132, 1998, p. 61.
[3] A discrepancy occurred on his records about his age. He was 7 in the 1910 British Census. On his British Navy Records, his birthdate was 26 July 1892. He was 21 on his marriage certificate as at 16 February 1914. As at 8 November 1917, his application for the AIF had his age at 23 years and 6 months. Whereas his Navy Record made him 24 years 3 months. According to his marriage certificate, he had to be older than 23 years 6 months and at least 23 years 8 months at the date of his enlistment. Perhaps, his age was increased for the Navy. Further investigation needs to be made about his age:
Ancestry, Census Record for Walter Lindley, ‘1901 England Census’, Original Data: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901, RG13, 4404, 49, p.14, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England, Accessed 23 March 2018; Ancestry, Service Record for Walter Lindley, SS110144, ‘UK, Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939’, Original Data: Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, ADM 188, 362 and 363, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England, Accessed 17 March 2018; Marriage Certificate of Walter Lindley and Sarah Catherine Lovett, married 16 February 1914, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, 491/1914; and Service Record of Walter Lindley, p. 1, B2455, National Archives of Australia.
[4] Ancestry, Death Record for John Lindley, ‘England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915’, Yorkshire West Riding, died 1900, Vol. 9c, p. 563, Original Data: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, General Register Office, London, England, Accessed 17 March 2018.
[5] Ancestry, Service Record for Walter Lindley.
[6] Marriage Certificate of Walter Lindley and Sarah Catherine Lovett, married 16 February 1914.
[7] Anthony Fletcher, ‘A New Moral Order’, History Today, Vol. 64, Issue 8, 2014, p. 26.
[8] Bill Gammage, The Broken Years: Australian Soldiers in the Great War, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1974, p. 4.
[9] Birth Certificate of Adelaide Catherine Alicia Lindley, born 24 September 1914, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, 25068/1914.
[10] Birth Certificate of Myrtle Veronica Lindley, born 2 May 1916, Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, 10989/1916.
[11] Beaumont, ‘Australia’, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10581; Gammage, The Broken Years, p. 19; Joan Beaumont, ‘Australians and the Great War: Battles, the Home Front, and Memory’, Teaching History, Vol. 49, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 20-25; Joan Beaumont, Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, 2014, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW, pp. 219-244; and Michael McKernan, Australians at Home: World War I, Scoresby, Victoria, The Five Mile Press, 2014, pp. 7 and 38.
[12] Beaumont, Broken Nation, p. 242; and McKernan, Australians at Home, p. 38.
[13] Beaumont, Broken Nation, p. 242.
[14] Beaumont, Broken Nation, p. 242.
[15] Beaumont, Broken Nation, p. 243.
[16] Jobson, ‘First AIF Enlistment Patterns and Reasons for their Variation’, pp. 64-6.
[17] First World War Embarkation Roll of Walter Lindley, AWM8 23/74/4, p. 12, Australian War Memorial; and Service Record of Walter Lindley, p. 1.
[18] Ancestry, Service Record for Walter Lindley; Australian War Memorial, ‘Enlistment Standards, Accessed 20 March 2018; Jobson, ‘First AIF Enlistment Patterns and Reasons for their Variation’, p. 62; and Service Record of Walter Lindley, p. 3.
[19] Employment record of Walter Lindley, 2426, Metropolitan Transit Authority.
[20] On his right forearm he had a heart and sword tattoo. On his left forearm he had a sailor, girl, and heart, and a heart and dagger tattoos:
Ancestry, Service Record for Walter Lindley; and Service Record of Walter Lindley, p. 3.
[21] Ancestry, Soldiers’ Effects for John William Lindley, 2337, 2nd Life Guards, ‘UK, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-29’, died 23 November 1914, No. 7 Slap Hospital, Boulogne, France, Original Data: Soldiers’ Effects Records, 1901-60, National Army Museum, Chelsea, London, England, Accessed 8 March 2018.
[22] Gammage, The Broken Years, p. 21.
[23] Jobson, ‘First AIF Enlistment Patterns and Reasons for their Variation’, p. 62.
[24] W. B. Latimer’s studio was in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy:
W. B. Latimer, Walter Lindley, date unknown, believed 1916, personal collection.
[25] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 1, 4, 9, 12, 26, and 42.
[26] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 4 and 15.
[27] Latimer, Walter Lindley.
[28] Birth Certificate of Adelaide Catherine Alicia Lindley, born 24 September 1914; Birth Certificate of Myrtle Veronica Lindley, born 2 May 1916; and First World War Embarkation Roll of Walter Lindley, p. 7.
[29] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 7 and 11.
[30] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 7 and 11.
[31] Australian War Memorial, ‘Hurdcott Camp, near Fovant, Wiltshire, England’, Accessed 19 March 2018; and J. Salmon, Hearty Greetings from Fovant, date unknown, believed 1917, postcard, personal collection.
[32] Salmon, Hearty Greetings from Fovant.
[33] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, pp. 2 and 17, July 1917, pp. 18, 21, and 24 , AWM4 23/74/17 - 23/74/18, Australian War Memorial; Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, First World War, 1914-1918, 3188, 57th Battalion, IDRL/0428, p. 19, Australian War Memorial; and Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 11, 16, 17, and 27.
[34] Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, pp. 3, 32, and 45-53; and Spencer Jones, ‘Ypres, Battles of’, in 1914-1918-online, International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2015-02-13, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10552, , Accessed 23 February 2018.
[35] Jones, ‘Ypres, Battles of’, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10552; and Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, pp. xix, 3, and 179.
[36] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 11, 16, 17, and 27; and William Westerman, ‘Warfare 1914-1918 (Australia)’, in 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2016-03-02, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10849, Accessed 20 March 2018.
[37] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, pp. 1-25, July 1917, pp. 13-63, August 1917, pp. 33-52, September 1917, pp. 48-66 and 23-42, AWM4 23/74/17 - 23/74/20.
[38] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, p. 7, AWM4 23/74/17.
[39] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, p. 3, AWM4 23/74/17.
[40] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, p. 5, July 1917, p. 30, August 1917, pp. 38 and 46, AWM4 23/74/17 - 23/74/19.
[41] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, p. 7, AWM4 23/74/17.
[42] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, August 1917, p. 34, AWM4 23/74/19.
[43] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, pp. 5-6, July 1917, pp. 14, 22, and 30, August 1917, pp. 33 and 38, AWM4 23/74/17 - 23/74/19.
[44] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, pp. 6, 7, and 11, July 1917, pp. 29-30, August 1917, pp. 33, 37, and 40, September 1917, pp. 33, 52-53, and 55, AWM4 23/74/17 - 23/74/20; and Jones, ‘Ypres, Battles of’, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10552.
[45] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, pp. 2-3 and 7-8, July 1917, pp. 25, 28, and 30, August 1917, p. 37, September 1917, p. 49, AWM4 23/74/17 - 23/74/20.
[46] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, p, 13, AWM4 23/74/18.
[47] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, June 1917, pp. 2-3 and 7-8, AWM4 23/74/17.
[48] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 29th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, p. 2, AWM4 23/46/24, Australian War Memorial; Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 30th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, p. 4, AWM4 23/47/24, Australian War Memorial; Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, p. 18, AWM4 23/74/18; Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 58th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, p. 68, AWM4 23/75/18, Australian War Memorial; Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 59th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, p. 4, AWM4 23/76/18, Australian War Memorial; Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 60th Australian Infantry Battalion, July 1917, pp. 8 and 32-33, AWM4 23/77/18, Australian War Memorial.
[49] Jessica Meyer, ‘Writing Home: Men’s Letters from the Front’, in Men of War: Masculinity and the First World War in Britain, Palgrave, Basingstoke, 2009, pp. 15 and 45; and Walter Lindley to Sarah Lindley, postcard, date unknown, believed 1917, personal collection.
[50] Lindley to Lindley, postcard, date unknown, believed 1917.
[51] Lindley to Lindley, postcard, date unknown, believed 1917; and Meyer, ‘Writing Home: Men’s Letters from the Front’, p. 35.
[52] Lindley to Lindley, postcard, date unknown, believed 1917.
[53] Carmel Shute, ‘Heroines and Heroes: Sexual Mythology in Australia 1914-18’, in Joy Damousi and Marilyn Lake, eds., Gender and War: Australians at War in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 31.
[54] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, September 1917, pp. 60-63a and 35-40, AWM4 23/74/20; and Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918: Volume IV: The Australian Imperial Force in France: 1917, 11th edn., Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1941, p.799.
[55] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, September 1917, pp. 60-63a and 35-40, AWM4 23/74/20; and Bean, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918, p.799.
[56] Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, September 1917, pp. 63a-64 and 35-40, AWM4 23/74/20; and Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, pp. xiii and 3.
[57] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, p. 1-2, 5, 7-10, 12-19, and 25; Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Robert Smith, First World War, 1914-1918, 3239, 57th Battalion, IDRL/0428, pp. 1-7 and 11, Australian War Memorial; and Service Record of Walter Lindley, p. 19.
[58] ‘Parliaments Rejoice’, The Argus, 13 November 1918, p. 11,, Accessed 18 March 2018; Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, pp. xix and 195; and Westerman, ‘Warfare 1914-1918 (Australia)’, DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10849.
[59] Recorded in the 57th Battalion war diary for 26 September 1917 was officers wounded one and shell-shocked one, and other ranks missing were six, wounded 72 and shell-shocked 28:
Australian Imperial Force Unit War Diaries of 57th Australian Infantry Battalion, September 1917, p. 64, AWM4 23/74/20.
[60] Beaumont, Broken Nation, p. 348; and Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, p. 131.
[61] Beaumont, Broken Nation, p. 348; and Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, p. 131.
[62] Jobson, ‘First AIF Enlistment Patterns and Reasons for their Variation’, p. 65, Fig. 6; and Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, pp. xix and 195.
[63] Prior and Wilson, Passchendaele, pp. xiii, xviii, and xxiii.
[64] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 36-37.
[65] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, p. 3.
[66] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, p. 3.
[67] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, pp. 20-21.
[68] Shute, ‘Heroines and Heroes: Sexual Mythology in Australia 1914-18’, p. 31.
[69] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, pp. 10-12.
[70] ‘Roll of Honor, Victorian List, Killed in Action’, ‘Pte. W. LINDLEY, Collingwood, 26/9/17’, Weekly Times, 10 November 1917, p. 33, Accessed 1 March 2018.
[71] Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau File of Walter Lindley, pp. 12-13 and 18; McKernan, Australians at Home: World War I, pp. 202-203; and ‘Parliaments Rejoice’, The Argus, 13 November 1918, p. 11, Accessed 18 March 2018.
[72] Inscription: ‘To the Glory of God and in Memory of the Men of this Parish who gave their lives for their Country in the Great War’, 1914 – 1919’:
Krissy Hindley, Memorial at St John the Evangelist, Balby, Church of England, 2006, digital image, original in photographer’s collection.
[73] Employment record of Walter Lindley.
[74] Hindley, Memorial at St John the Evangelist, Balby, Church of England.
[75] Roll of Honour of Walter Lindley, AWM145, Panel 164, Australian War Memorial.
[76] Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ‘Private Lindley, Walter’, Panel 29, Accessed 19 March 2018; and Commonwealth War Graves Commission, ‘Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial’, Accessed 19 March 2018.
[77] Service Record of Walter Lindley, p. 42.
[78] Service Record of Walter Lindley, pp. 9, 11, 17, 18, 19, 27, 32, and 37.
[79] I witnessed the tears swell in my Nanna’s eyes, Adelaide, when I asked her about her father:
Joy Damousi, ‘Mourning Practices’, in Jay Winter, ed., The Cambridge History of the First World War: Vol. III: Civil Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, pp. 359-384.
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