Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Sergeant Walter William Dumbrell spent his life in the service and protection of others. His father David met his mother, Jane Blake, and the two were married in Sydney in 1879. They had five children: George, Walter, Ethel, Albert and Myrtle. Walter was their second child and was born in the July of 1883 at Redfern in Sydney NSW.

Walter was only 17 when the Boer War began, but that did not deter him from wanting to serve. When his father refused to give him permission to enlist, Walter paid for his own passage to South Africa. Once there he joined the 5th Queensland Imperial Bushmen as a private after the contingent’s arrival in Port Elizabeth on 1st April 1901. The 5th was involved in plenty of fighting, and Walter was lucky to live through it all. The 5th’s campaign came to a close on the 12th of March 1902, and they arrived back in Brisbane on the 30th of March.

A few years after returning to Australia, Walter joined the Queensland Police Service. After initial training he was stationed at the Police Barracks, Bolsover St in Rockhampton as a Constable in 1910.At the end of August 1912, he transferred to Banana for nine months before returning to Rockhampton. It was here he married his sweetheart Grace Evans on the 12th of May 1913. Fourteen months later the couple had a son, Walter David Dumbrell, born on 30th July 1914. The following year Walter was transferred to Many Peaks on the 25th of March 1915.

But once again Walter could not ignore the call to arms to defend King and Country, and so took leave from the police force and enlisted in Rockhampton on the 18th of September 1915. He was assigned to ‘B’ Company of the 41st Infantry Battalion as a Lance Corporal. Leaving Sydney in May 1916, he arrived in England two months later. After more training he proceeded to France on November 24th. A month later he was admitted to hospital with a severe sinus infection on Xmas Day, only one day after entering the front line for the first time. Upon recovery he rejoined his unit and was promoted to Sergeant on 12th January 1917.

The next few bleak winter months were spent alternating between service on the front line in the Le Toquet sector, and training and labouring in the rear. By June the battalion had moved on to Pont de Niepe, where Walter experienced constant bombardment, including gas shells. On the 7th of June the 41st acted as carrying parties moving supplies forward for the assaulting troops. With the allies successful and Messines Ridge captured, July and August saw Walter and his mates endure heavy rain and enemy counter attacks. The trenches became quagmires of knee-deep mud, some only waist deep now due to the collapse of the trench walls. Even with these atrocious conditions, the fighting continued.

Walter must have thought himself lucky when he was selected to undergo Lewis Gun training at Tidworth’s School of Musketry back in England at the beginning of September. After two weeks of training, he qualified as a 1st class instructor and was transferred to the 9th Training Battalion. On the 1st of March 1918 Walter proceeded back to France and rejoined his beloved 41st Battalion on the front lines a week later, just in time for the battalion to be moved to the rear for some much-needed R & R. Not that it lasted for long. By the 1st of April they were back in the thick of it at Sailly-le-sec, along the Bray-Corbie Road.

The next couple of weeks became a routine of artillery shelling, night patrolling, and trying to survive the wet, the mud and disease. On the 18th of April the enemy was seen digging new trenches and so it was suggested that the 25th Artillery Battery bring up a gun to enfilade the position. They did, and at daylight on the 19th they opened fire pounding the area with 140 rounds. Thirty minutes later the enemy replied with 105mm guns, putting up to 500 shells into the allied position up until midday. It was during this horrific barrage that Sergeant Walter William Dumbrell was hit. Death was instantaneous. His life of service was over.

On May the 1st, Grace was informed by Lieut Colonel Luscombe from Army HQ in Brisbane that Sergeant Walter Dumbrell, No 248 had been killed in action on the 19th of April. On the 5th of May, Grace wrote to the officer i/c Base Records Melbourne for confirmation that the soldier was in fact her husband because Walter’s regimental number was 348. She knew it was a long shot, there was no harm in asking. She finished her letter by saying “It is hard to part with those we hold so dear, but we can hold our heads up with pride and be consoled by saying they died a glorious death by fighting for king and country”. Such was the staunch patriotism of the day. Unfortunately, the reply on the 13th of May, regrettably confirmed his death and put the incorrect regimental number down to a mutilation in transmission. In the end, the loss of her husband earned her a pension of 2 pounds, 13 shillings and 9 six pence per fortnight. Young Walter David was awarded a pension of 1 pound per fortnight for the loss of his father.

Sergeant Walter Dumbrell was originally buried 1km from where he was killed, but now lies in Plot 1, Row D, Grave 9 of the Villers Bretonneux Cemetery in France.