Walter Meadows (1895-?)

22 September 1914

Wyndham City Libraries

text

eng

Walter Meadows

27

W. A. Meadows
Brother

Werribee, Victoria

Single

Unknown

No.27  Lance Corporal Walter Meadows
Walter Meadows was born in 1895 but there is no record in the Victoria Birth Indexes.

War Service
On his embarkation record, Walter Meadows listed Werribee as being his residential address, at the time of his enlistment in the A.I.F.  He also nominated his brother, W.A. Meadows as his next of kin.

Walter stated that he had previous military service with the 29th Light Horse. [The 29th Light Horse regiment (Port Phillip Horse) were mobilised for duty on 8 August 1914.
The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide), 8 August 1914, p.1]

It is suspected that he transferred directly into full time military service.

War Service
There is no Service Record for Walter Meadows on the National Archives web site. All information on him comes from other sources.

According to the Embarkation Rolls, Walter Meadows enlisted in the A.I.F. on 22 September 1914, and was allocated to the Headquarters unit of the 8^th Light Horse Regiment (they were part of the 3^rd Light Horse Brigade). They embarked from Melbourne per H.M.A.T. A16, Star of Victoria, on 25 February 1915, and sailed to Egypt.

The 8th Light Horse Regiment were sent to Gallipoli in May 1915, as an unmounted unit. These men were deployed as reinforcements to the Infantry units, and their largest action was in the Battle of the Neck. This was considered to be the most senseless waste of Australian lives at Gallipoli, when 240 men were slaughtered by Turkish machine gunners, in four attacking waves. The remnants of the unit then continued on in a defensive role, until the general withdrawal from Anzac Cove in December 1915.

The Australian Light Horse then fought in the two Battles for Gaza, and then the Battle of Beersheba, before moving on to Palestine. There they participated in the capture of Jerusalem and then Damascus.

Post War
The A.I.F. Nominal Roll for WW1 states that No.27 Private Walter Meadows of the 3rd Light Horse Division, returned to Australia on 3 July 1919.

This matches a newspaper report in The Age, 28 July 1919, p.8, which stated that Lance Sergeant W. Meadows of the 8^th Light Horse Regiment had embarked from Suez per H.H. “Malta”, on 3 July 1919, for return to Australia.

Persons with the surname Meadows, that corresponds to Walter, or his brother, have not been able to be located on the post WW1 Electoral Roll.

Notes
There is no Service Record available online at the National Archives, for either Walter Meadows, or his brother, W.A. Meadows. The only information comes from his unit's embarkation record, the AIF Nominal Roll, and newspaper reports of their activities. 

Name on the Werribee Shire Oak Board: MEADOWS, W.

The name “Meadows, W” first appeared in the Roll of Honor, Werribee Shire Banner, 22 July 1915, p.3.

Embarkation
https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/

Unit War Diary
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection

Death
ancestry.com.au

Service Record
https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/

Marriage
ancestry.com.au

Pioneer Index 1837-1888 CD
Federation Index 1889-1901 CD
Edwardian Index 1902-1913 CD
Great War Index 1914-1920 CD