Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

10/05/1916

Date of Discharge

13/04/1919

Place of Enlistment

Cootamundra NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

25/02/1889

Place of Birth

Queanbeyan NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Adelong NSW (previously Royalla ACT)

Occupation

Labourer

Next of Kin

Maurice Wallace (father), Adelong NSW

Service Number

4393

Final Rank

Private

Final Unit

58 Battalion AIF

Wallace grew up in the Royalla/ Williamsdale area where his father, whose family had a long association with Tuggeranong, worked on the railways. The 1891 census for New South Wales shows the family living at Rob Roy (Royalla) and the state electoral roll for 1889 shows his father as a resident of Tuggeranong. Wallace served mostly with the 29th Battalion at Bapaume and Bullecourt but also with the 9th Tramway Company during the battles around Menin Road, Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. After rejoining the 29th Battalion he was wounded in the left shoulder during an attack at Morlancourt (on the Somme) and, after treatment in England, was sent as a reinforcement to the 58th Battalion in November shortly before the Armistice was signed.

After returning to Australia, Wallace lived at Adelong and served with the Volunteer Defence Corps in World War 2. He died in the Tumut district in 1971.

Description - height 5 feet 7inches, weight 150 pounds, fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, Catholic.

Our Queanbeyan 'Boys' No.3, Howard & Shearsby, Yass (postcard)
Rex Cross, 'Bygone Queanbeyan', 1980
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
NSW Births, Deaths & Marriages - http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/search.htm