Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

BARLOW Walter Robert #17A 9th Battalion

Walter Barlow was born at Elphinstone between Warwick and Toowoomba, the only child of Robert and Jane Barlow. The family moved to nearby Pittsworth where Walter attended school before taking up a five year carpentry apprenticeship with a local carpenter.

Like many young single men of that time, Walter would appear to have been working as an itinerant in the period before the war. When he enlisted in Brisbane on 4th November 1915 at the age of 27, he stated his address as Colinton via Esk. Walter was placed into “A Company” of the newly formed 42nd Battalion and began initial training at Enoggera. The 42nd travelled by train to Sydney where the battalion boarded the “Borda” on 5th June 1916. The embarkation roll records that Walter had allocated 4 shillings of his 5 shillings daily pay to his mother, who was by that time a widow.

Walter arrived in England on 9th September 1916 and marched into the 3rd Training Battalion at Perham Downs where he was transferred to the 9th Battalion as a reinforcement. On 17th September, Walter proceeded overseas to France where he finally joined his battalion on 1st October 1916. The 9th Battalion, as part of the 1st Division of the AIF had been involved in its first major action in France at Pozieres and Mouquet Farm during July, August and September of 1916. When Walter joined the battalion’s ranks, the AIF was resting and recovering in the rear areas near Ypres in Belgium after a gruelling campaign on the Somme.

Later in October, the 9th Battalion was sent back to the Somme where the front line had progressed hardly at all since the battles near Pozieres. Walter would have found himself manning positions in the front line where conditions deteriorated as winter set in. On 22nd November of 1916, Walter reported sick to a Field Ambulance. He was transferred to a New Zealand hospital in Amiens and then to a Canadian Hospital in Rouen. Walter’s file states the illness as influenza but medical notes state that he was suffering from rheumatics.

Walter was evacuated by hospital ship to the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol where he remained for three months before being transferred to a hospital in Dartford. On 13th April 1917, Walter was discharged to a depot at Weymouth. In total Walter had been in hospital for almost five months. When his mother wrote to the authorities in Melbourne requesting information about him she was informed that it was not general practice to advise next of kin of minor illnesses. In fact they had no knowledge of his hospitalisation at all.

Walter was finally given movement orders in July 1917 and he rejoined his battalion in Belgium on 29th July. While he had been away, the thrust of the British offensive had shifted north from the Somme to the flat swampy ground of the Ypres Salient. The battle of 3rd Ypres; more commonly known as Passchendaele, began in June at Messines and progressed in stages along the axis of the Menin Road from Ypres towards Broodseinde Ridge and the village of Zonnebeke. The 9th Battalion relieved another Australian unit at Broodseinde in late October. Broodseinde became well known for the enemy’s deployment of mustard gas. On 1st November, Walter was evacuated by light rail to one of the casualty clearing stations in Poperinghe suffering from the effects of gas. He was transferred to a hospital on the French coast and then placed on a hospital ship. Walter spent six weeks at the Mile End Military Hospital in East London before being discharged to furlough. He spent almost six months at the depot at Hurdcott before being classed as fit for active service. Walter proceeded overseas again on 26th June 1918 and finally rejoined his battalion on 10th July.

While Walter had been recovering from gas poisoning, the war on the western front had taken a significant turn. In March of 1918, the Germans had launched a series of surprise offensives along the entire front, with the most threatening being along the Somme valley. To meet this threat, the bulk of the AIF with the exception of the 1st Division had been deployed into the defence of Amiens.

There was also the possibility of an offensive in Belgian Flanders and the 1st Division AIF was holding the Germans along the front line in the vicinity of Meteren near Armentieres just north west of Lille. The 9th Battalion moved up to the line to relieve another Anzac Battalion on 14th July. It was reported that Walter Barlow was killed in action on 21st July 1918. He was one of seven killed that day, probably by artillery fire.

There is no record of Walter’s body being recovered or buried. His mother made enquiries through the Red Cross to determine the circumstances surrounding his disappearance including a check of POW records. Walter had only been back with his unit a matter of ten days and it is likely that the Red Cross was unable to locate anyone from his company who knew him. Sadly no personal effects of Walter’s were located to be returned to his mother. He is commemorated on the tablets of the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux, in company with 10,000 other Australians who lost their lives in France and have no known grave.