Walter Herbert FULLER

Regimental number438
Place of birthIsland View, Narooma, New South Wales
SchoolNarooma Public School, Narooma, New South Wales
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationFarmer
AddressNarooma, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19.5
Height5' 11.5"
Weight118 lbs
Next of kinFather, George Fuller, Narooma, New South Wales
Previous military serviceNil
Enlistment date11 January 1916
Date of enlistment from Nominal Roll3 January 1916
Place of enlistmentLiverpool, New South Wales
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name36th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/53/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A72 Beltana on 13 May 1916
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll36th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 12 October 1917
Place of death or woundingPasschendaele, Ypres, Belgium
Age at death21.2
Age at death from cemetery records21
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 25), Belgium

The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave.

The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936.

Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
121
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Commemorated in Narooma Cemetery, New South Wales. Parents: George and Martha FULLER, Island View, Narooma, New South Wales
Other details

War service: Western Front

Embarked Sydney, 13 May 1916; disembarked Devonport, England, 9 July 1916.

Proceeded overseas to France, 22 November 1916.

Wounded in action, 7 June 1917 (gun shot wound, knee), and admitted to 9th Australian Field Ambulance; transferred to 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station, 8 June 1917, and transferred to Ambulance Train; admitted to 11th Stationary Hospital, Rouen, 9 June 1917; to Convalescent Depot, Rouen, 12 June 1917; to 2nd Convalescent Depot, Rouen, 12 June 1917; to 11th Convalescent Depot, Buchy, 16 June 1917; to Base Details, Rouelles, 13 July 1917; rejoined unit, in the field, 3 August 1917.

Reported missing in action, 12 October 1917.

Court of Enquiry, 4 April 1918, concluded: 'Killed in action, Belgium, 12 October 1917.'

Statement, Red Cross File No 1120702D, 5053 Driver H. POWER, 36th Bn, 4 March 1918: 'He was in B. Company, and the 8th Platoon. I was told by Sergeant G. Kewen on about the 18th. October, when we were with the Battalion, that he saw Fuller wounded as they were making an attack on October 12th. They carried their objective ... I knew Fuller, he was dark haired, clean shaven.'

Second statement, 2350 Pte T.F. MILLER, 36th Bn (patient, No 2 Australian General Hospital, Boulogne), 9 March 1918: 'This was at Ploegsteert, Armentieres front. We were in the front line and the enemy was lobbing over shells but not during an attack. He was about 20 yards from me in the trench. I was on the gas post. I saw a shell fall on the parapet close to him which wounded him so seriously that he died in a few minutes. He was buried at Armentieres and a wooden cross was put up. I had known him about 18 months. We were in Camp together, Broad Meadow in Jan 1916, near Newcastle N.S.W. He came from Newcastle. He was about 5 ft 6 ins, nuggety and stiffly built, fair hair, cleanshaven and about 24 years of age.'

Third statement, 431 Pte F.W. EWINGTON, 33rd Bn (formerly 36th Bn), 22 March 1919: 'He was in B. Coy. and was single. He was blown to pieces by a shell at Passchendaele. He was first posted missing, and not long afterwards reported killed. None of his remains were ever found.'

Medals: British War Medal, Victory Medal
SourcesNAA: B2455, FULLER Walter Herbert
Red Cross File No 1120702D