Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

11/11/1915

Place of Enlistment

Queanbeyan NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

15/03/1890

Place of Birth

Cotter Junction ACT

Address (at enlistment)

Campbell Street, Queanbeyan NSW (previously 'Greenhills', Cotter Junction ACT)

School(s) Attended

Yarralumla ACT

Occupation

Farmer / grazier / labourer

Next of Kin

Son of Richard and Agnes Moore of Campbell Street, Queanbeyan NSW

Burial Place

France 144 Adelaide Cemetery Villers-Bretonneux

Service Number

1896

Final Rank

Gunner

Final Unit

5 Brigade Australian Field Artillery AIF

Died (killed in action) at Villers Bretonneux on 8 August 1918 aged 28 years

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 14, Canberra ACT
Memorial plaque in porch of Christ Church, Queanbeyan NSW
World War 1 Memorial, corner of Lowe St and Farrer Place, Queanbeyan NSW
Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Walter Moore was born in March 1890 at his parent's property, 'Greenhills', near Cotter Junction. He attended school at Yarralumla before the family moved to Queanbeyan in 1905 although by then Walter had left school to work on Greenhills. His father served as mayor of Queanbeyan from 1913 to 1915 and his mother helped found the Queanbeyan branch of the Red Cross. Moore enlisted on 11 September 1915 with the 1st Light Horse Regiment but transferred to the 5th Field Artillery Brigade in Egypt before arriving in France in May 1916. He wrote from Belgium in early 1918 that he had "seen millions of shells burst and some at pretty close quarters". Moore was killed in action on 8 August 1918 during the Battle of Amiens in France. His battery (the 14th) was positioned on the eastern edge of Villers-Bretonneux when the Germans opened up their artillery on troops in front of them just before the Allies began their attack at 4.20am. His father was told that Walter was "at the gun and just prior to the big attack opening. He was buried with all reverence on the spot where he fell. Owing to our immediate advance afterwards there was no time to erect a cross."

Description - height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 168 pounds, chest 35-38 inches, fair complexion, blue eyes, fair hair, Church of England.

AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
Bruce Moore, 'The Warm Corner: A history of the Moore families and their relatives; early pioneers of the Queanbeyan / Canberra district', Pearce ACT, B. Moore, 1981 (pp.56, 59, 91).
Peter Procter, 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan', Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001, p. 225.
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Narelle O'Rourke, 'A Country Nurse and Midwife', 1989
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys', Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Goulburn Herald - 12 September 1893
Queanbeyan Age - 26 November 1915, 12 February 1918, 3 September 1918, 22 November 1918