Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

08/01/1916

Date of Discharge

19/08/1919

Place of Enlistment

Melbourne, Victoria

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

22/02/1892

Place of Birth

Bacchus Marsh, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Werribee, Victoria (previously Acton ACT)

School(s) Attended

St. Patrick's Christian Brothers College, Ballarat

Occupation

Clerk

Next of Kin

David Little (father), Werribee, Victoria

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

Australian Flying Corps

Queanbeyan RSL Wall of Remembrance, Crawford St, Queanbeyan NSW

Military Cross. The citation says: "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in action east of Ypres on 4th October 1917. This officer selected and supervised the preparation of approach route and assembly line for the assault and carried out his work in a most satisfactory way. The necessary reconnaissance involved a considerable amount of difficult and dangerous work under heavy enemy fire. At the commencement of the attack, when, on account of the difficult country, carrying parties in the forward area reorganized the parties and by his efforts put the whole scheme on a satisfactory footing. After that, he made several important reconnaissances under heavy fire and brought back very valuable information".

Little arrived in Canberra in 1913 to work as a clerk in the Lands and Survey Branch of the Department of Home Affairs and living at the Bachelor Quarters at Acton. He was prominent in local sports in athletics (winning the Territory championship in 120 yard hurdles, 440 yards and high jump in 1914), cricket, soccer and tennis as well as being a foundation member of the Canberra Rifle Club and captain of the Canberra Australian Rules football team. He also helped with the arrangements for the funeral of Major General W.T. Bridges in September 1915.

Little enlisted on 8 January 1916 in Melbourne and served as a Lieutenant in the 37th Battalion in France and Belgium. On the night of 6 June 1917 his unit marched through the gas-saturated Ploegsteert Wood to be in position as part of the second wave attacking along the Douve valley near Messines but Little was badly gassed and received a gun shot wound to the arm. He recovered to take part in the battles at Broodseinde (where he was awarded the Military Cross) and Passchendaele. In December 1917 he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps but was hospitalised in July 1918 after his plane crashed. He returned to Australia in August 1918 suffering synovitis in the shoulder and his appointment was terminated on 19 August 1919, after which he lived in Melbourne.

He studied law at Melbourne University and became a barrister, played Australian Rules in the VFL for the Melbourne Football Club and in 1943 became a Crown Prosecutor. Leo Little died in Melbourne on 19 November 1956, just before the start of the Olympic Games.

Description - height 5 feet 10¼ inches, 116 pounds, chest 36-40 inches, dark complexion, grey eyes, brown hair, Catholic, a scar on top of the right and left shoulders.

Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.3, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Queanbeyan Age - 9 February 1913, 24 July 1914, 1 September 1914, 14 October 1914, 17 October 1914, 20 October 1914, 13 April 1915, 27 April 1915, 23 November 1915, 4 February 1916
Queanbeyan Leader - 18 October 1915, 31 January 1916, 3 February 1916
Queanbeyan Observer - 6 September 1915
The Age (Melbourne) - 20 December 1956
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. IV p.625, note 105)
National Library of Australia: Country Women's Association of NSW (Canberra Branch) History, 1959 (manuscript call no. NLA MS 734)
Russell Holmesby and Jim Main, 'The Encyclopedia of AFL Football', Melbourne 2002 (p.381)
Janet Newman and Jennie Warren, 'Royal Canberra Hospital. An Anecdotal History of Nursing 1914-1991', 1993
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Bounce of the Ball', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)