22/04/2026
Lest we forget 🌹
I posted this story a few years ago, but thought I would post again as it reminds me that the ANZACS were young men and young boys, thinking they were to embark on an adventure and to serve their country. The horror they lived, and in some cases survived, is unspeakable. We memorialise them as heroes as we should, but Walter’s story reminds me of who they were before their lives changed forever.
I joined the Royal Australian Air Force at the age of 23.
I did some amazing things in the Airforce, travelled the globe, made some lifelong friends and met my beautiful wife. I served in the Gulf War and spent time in Mogadishu, Somalia.
I was awarded the Australian Active Service Medal with clasp Kuwait and clasp Somalia.
I was also awarded the Liberation of Kuwait medal by the Kuwait government, and the Kuwait Freedom medal from Saudi Arabia, so I figure I can march on Anzac Day.
I don’t march for me, I march for my Grandfather.
My Grandfather, Walter Wright was also 23, 23 years and 9 months, 5 foot 7 inches tall, when he enlisted in the Australian Infantry Force.
He joined the 11th Battalion AIF in Western Australia and was quickly sent to Egypt where he and the rest of the Battalion trained in sand warfare in the shadows of the Great Pyramids. There is a famous photo of some diggers in front of a pyramid. That’s the 11th Battalion. Walter is in that photo.
The Battalion trained in Egypt for 4 months and on the night of 24 April 1915 they boarded ships for the landing at Gallipoli at 4.30am the next morning.
The 11th Battalion was the left flank of the first wave. After rowing ashore, they landed on the beach under heavy machine gun fire, taking heavy losses.
Walter survived most of the day before being shot in the hip. He spent 10 days on a hospital ship moored off the coast then went back to the beach. He was shot again on the 10th June, hit in the arm and the leg, spent a couple of days in hospital then went back to the trenches.
The Battalion then fought the battle of Lone Pine, holding off a fierce Turkish attack on ‘Leanes Trench’. Walter was hit again later that same month, and again in August that year.
Over the course of the time between the landing on the 25th April and the withdrawal in December 1915 he was shot 5 times. The battalion had gone from a strength of nearly 900 men to just over 300.
From Gallipoli, the 11th Battalion was sent by ship, then train, to ‘Tali al Kibar’ where the members of the 11th Battalion were redistributed to other Battalions.
Walter fought in France through 1916 until 29 July, when he was caught by a mine and hospitalised again. Returning to fight in France, he was gassed during a battle, and hospitalised again.
Ultimately, he returned to Australia on the 13th June 1919 after being away from home for 4 years and 256 days. He was shot 5 times, wounded by a mine, gassed, promoted to Sgt, demoted (drunk and using language to an officer) promoted again and sent home to be discharged to live the rest of his life.
My mum remembered
His nightmares
His wicker wheelchair
The limp from his wounds.
I march for Walter.
Lest we forget 🌹
