BASING Walter Henry

Walter Henry Basing was born in 1891 at Bolivia Station, a cattle property about 30km south of Tenterfield, in the Glen Innes civil registration district, the 3rd child and 2nd son of Frederick and Ellen Basing. In 1896 his parents moved to Hillgrove, a gold and antimony mining town not far from Armidale, where he attended Hillgrove Public School. In about 1907 his family moved to Dorrigo, a cedar and rosewood area where his father was involved in the timber industry. The older brother of his mother, Harry Fry, enlisted in November 1914 soon after the war broke out and was seriously wounded at Gallipoli, and Walter then enlisted at Lismore on 12th May 1915, went to Enoggera for training, and soon after he left for Gallipoli, where he was lucky to suffer no wounds. When his unit, 15th Bn was withdrawn from Gallipoli it went to France, where Walter stayed with that unit and at the Battle of Hamel on 5th July 1918, he suffered a wound to the head from an exploding artillery shell and compound fracture of the right forearm. He died of those wounds later than day and was buried at Crouy Military Cemetery by the Chaplain Reverend A Forty.

At that time his parents were living at Cooroy, having moved there at about the time of his enlistment. His younger brother Alfred Joseph Basing had died of wounds the year before as a member of A Company of 42nd Battalion, and his Uncle Harry Fry, seriously wounded at Gallipoli had been discharged as medically unfit for further service, so at that time the younger brother of Walter and Alfred, Frederick, who had just had his 18th birthday, enlisted in the Army

Extract from Chapter 14 of the Book "History of 15th Bn AIF" by Lt Thomas Percival Chataway, revised and edited by Lt Col Paul Goldenstedt, published by William Brooks Brisbane. The following is the opening paragraph of that chapter.
"The battle of Hamel, fought from 4th July 1918, as a military operation, was one of the most perfect actions of he whole war, for the first time there was complete co-operation between the infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft, a form of co-operation the General Staff had had been seeking ever since the disastrous experiment with tanks at Bullefourt during the summer of 1917".
In spite of that, there were so many casualties among the Australian troops and sadly my great uncle, the younger brother of my grandmother, died there from his wounds suffered two days after the battle commenced.

Further info supplied by Betty and Di
Walter Basing was born at Glen Innes, New South Wales in 1892, a son of Frederick and Ellen Basing who later settled at ‘West View’ Cooroy West. Walter received his education at Armidale. On 12 May 1915 at Lismore, Walter enlisted in 7th Reinforcements 15 Battalion Infantry. A farm labourer, aged 23 years, he was described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, of 128 pounds weight, with dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair and of the church of England faith.
Following initial training at Enoggera, Private Walter Basing embarked from Brisbane on board the ‘Shropshire’ on 20 august 1915. After having spent some weeks with the 2nd Training Battalion at Zeitoun in Egypt, Walter proceeded with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) to Gallipoli Peninsular on 4 November 1915. He was taken on strength with 15 Battalion at Gallipoli on 13 November.
Walter returned to Egypt from Mudros on 29 December 1915. After having spent a month in No 4 Auxiliary Hospital at Abbassia with Mumps, he re-joined 15 Battalion at Moascar on 5 February 1916. On 1st June, Walter proceeded to join the British Expeditionary Force at Alexandria and sailed for France on the ‘Transylvania’ to disembark at Marseilles on 8 June 1916.
The 15th Battalion’s first major action in France was at Pozieres in August 1916. Walter was wounded in action on 9 August by a gunshot wound to the leg. He was again hospitalised several times with illness over some months. He re-joined the Battalion on 22 March 1917 and was appointed L/Cpl on 21 September. 15 Battalion suffered heavy losses at Bullecourt in April 1917 and then spent much of the remainder of 1917 in Belgium advancing to the Hindenburg Line. Walter had leave in England in November and December 1917.
On 7 March 1918, Walter Basing was promoted to Corporal. In March and April, the Battalion fought in the German Spring Offensive and in July 1918, near Hamel when Walter was wounded in action on 5 July. He was admitted to the 4th Australian Field Ambulance with a shrapnel wound to the head and a compound fracture to the right forearm. He was transferred to 47th Casualty Clearing Station where he died. Walter was buried in the British Cemetery at Crouy-Sur-Somme.
W J Basing is commemorated on the Cooroy War Memorial; Cooroy Memorial Hall Honour Roll; Lismore and District Great War Memorial and AWM Memorial Panel 74.

Cooroy Cenotaph, Memorial Triangle, Diamond Street, Cooroy

Cooroy District Honor Roll (Supreme Sacrifice), Cooroy Memorial Hall, Maple Street, Cooroy

Nambour (Maroochy Shire) Roll of Honor Scroll, Private Collection, Nambour (this scroll was available for sale to the public after the war)

Lismore and District Great War Memorial

Australian War Memorial

Extract from Chapter 14 of the Book "History of 15th Bn AIF" by Lt Thomas Percival Chataway, revised and edited by Lt Col Paul Goldenstedt, published by William Brooks Brisbane.