Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Biography on Barry Walter Wallace

Barry Walter Wallace was born in September 1894 in Adelaide, Australia, he was single his whole life and his job was a cashier in a supermarket. Barry lived in Norwood, 118 Osmond Terrace. On the 10th of December, 1914 Barry Walter Wallace was enlisted into the war, Barry enlisted voluntarily and was 19 years of age. When he enlisted he weighed approximately 63kg and was 5 foot 8. He was placed into the 10th Infantry battalion 3rd reinforcement and his rank was private. He was given the regimental number 1557.

On the 15th of August 1914 Barry left to Melbourne for training and other documents to be filled out, they told him what battalion he was in and it was the 10th battalion 3rd infantry brigade and they told him what his role was in the war, this was a very serious time, for if they didn’t listen to the game plan they would probably end up dead in the middle of a battle field. They were in Melbourne until 4th of September 1914. On the 5th of September 1914, Barry Walter Wallace was sent over to Brisbane to get his uniform necessary for his battalion and they were given weapons and other necessary equipment.

Barry Walter Wallace embarked aboard the HMAT A54 Runic on February 19th, 1915 from Melbourne, Victoria. The boat landed in Egypt for training and teaching the soldiers how to fight and use their weapons. The ANZACS were meant to go over to England and train but the British did not provide tents or shelter for all the Anzacs.

It took the boat 2 months and 6 days to land at Gallipoli from Melbourne. Barry Walter Wallace boat landed at Naval Beach they had thousands and thousands of Turkish soldiers waiting for them and when one of the funnels from the boats let off a spark in the night sky the Turks knew the ANZACS were here. Barry Walter Wallace ran for his life up the steep, slippery and prickly hill towards the Turks. Barry Walter Wallace kept moving forward and after the first 3 days of continuous fighting the Anzacs seized control of the ridge.

They were at Sutter creek on May the 1st at 8:30 am and was with the 9th battalion, on this day Barry Walter Wallace was carrying out tarred wire and making sure they were prepared if there was to be a fight. On May the 4th his battalion arrived at Gaba Tepe and Barry was fixing communication wires which were a very important resource. May the 7th the battle at Gaba Tepe was set a light with the first heavy Shelling from the Turks, not far from Barry Walter Wallace, the shelling lasted from 3 pm to 6:30 pm and they were under heavy fire. That night was very quiet and was mainly removing dead bodies and casualties.

They were at Gaba Tepe for a month because it was to risky to move forwards because the enemy was to close. The battalion eventually forced the Turks to retreat and moved forward. On June the 20th they arrived at Hurry Ridge and the trenches were full of mud, they could see red and white lights which were bombs from the sky, the Turks blew up the trench in a matter of hours Barry was running for his life through the trenches shooting people with his rifle, all of the information he learnt in Egypt, all lead to this one battle trying to hold of the Turks.

The trench was all blown up but they managed to hold off the Turks from invading their trench, there were many casualties and deaths in this battle. The next day work continued for Barry Walter Wallace as he rebuilt the trenches and placed sand bags in the trenches. On July 9th 1915 he was at a place called the Anzac position on the Northern No.1, section defense. At this place it was very quite and boring, the main goal was to just hold off the enemy defenses if they got passed section 1, during this time Barry Walter Wallace became ill, mainly to poor sanitation and deteriorating hygiene. Dysentery and enteric fever were rife.

Barry Walter Wallace evacuated back to Australia in August, 15th 1915. He was discharged from the war 4 months later on December 13th because he was called to be medically unfit for war, for either, poor sanitation, Deteriorating hygiene, Dysentery fever or Enteric Fever.

Barry Walter Wallace later died in 1959, November 23rd in Glenelg because of natural causes. He was 65 years old. His cemetery is located in North Road cemetery, South Australia.