The AIF Project

Jack Harold WALTON

Regimental number262
Place of birthCollingwood, Victoria
Place of birthBallarat, Victoria
SchoolGuildford State School, Guildford, Victoria
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationConfectioner
AddressDuke Street, Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation21
Next of kinMrs Annie Walton, Duke Street, Abbotsford, Melbourne, Victoria
Previous military serviceServed in the Williamstown, Victoria, Scouts.
Enlistment date18 August 1914
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name4th Battalion, B Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/21/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A14 Euripides on 20 October 1914
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll4th Battalion
FateKilled in Action 5 May 1917
Place of death or woundingNear Bullecourt, France
Age at death24
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
42
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Australian War Memorial, Canberra (Plate 42)
Family/military connectionsBrother: 1157 Bombardier Herbert Henry WALTON, , returned to Australia, 5 April 1919.
Other details

War service: enlisted, 18 August 1914. Embarked from Australia, 20 October 1914.

Proceeded from Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (Gallipoli campaign), 5 April 1915. Wounded in action, Gallipoli, 12 May 1915 (gunshot wound, lower extremities); evacuated to Alexandria and thence to hospital in Birmingham, England. Admitted to No. 1 General Hospital, Edgbaston, 20 May 1915.

Rejoined Bn on Mudros, 21 September 1915; classified 'B' medical status. Rejoined unit, Gallipoli, 6 November 1915. Embarked from Mudros for Alexandria (Gallipoli general evacuation); disembarked Alexandria, 29 December 1915. Admitted to 3rd Field Ambulance (injured knee), Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt, 26 January 1916; rejoined Bn, 27 January 1916. Admitted to No. 2 Australian General Hospital (wounded knee), Ghezirah, 10 February 1916; discharged, 7 March 1916. Admitted to 12th Field Ambulance, 21 April 1916; transferred to 3rd Auxiliary Hospital, 22 April 1916; transferred to Ras-el-Tin Convalescent Camp, 1 May 1916.

Embarked from Alexandria, 29 July 1916; to 1st Training Bn, Perham Downs, England. Proceeded to France, 14 August 1916. Marched in to 1st Australian General Base Depot, Etaples, 16 August 1916. Rejoined 4th Bn, Belgium, 1 September 1916.

Admitted to 5th Field Ambulance (septic hand), 31 December 1916; to 4th General Hospital, 1 January 1917. Killed in action, 5 May 1917.

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