Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

17/12/1940

Date of Discharge

16/07/1946

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

09/03/1916

Place of Birth

Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

National Circuit, Forrest ACT

School(s) Attended

Canberra Grammar School

Occupation

Bank officer

Next of Kin

Marie Nelson (friend), Roseville NSW

Service Number

NX70538

Final Rank

Major

Final Unit

2/33 Australian Infantry Battalion

Mentioned in Despatches (London Gazette: 30 December 1941, page 7359, position 90)

Waterman arrived in Canberra with his parents Herbert and Viola Waterman in 1922 and they lived in Acton. He attended Duntroon School, Telopea Park School and was a foundation student at Canberra Grammar School. When he enlisted in the AIF he was working at the Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney where he met and later married Marie Nelson on 21 December 1940. He embarked for the Middle East on 3 February 1941 with reinforcements to the 2/33 Battalion and served with them until returning to Australia in March 1942. From May to July 1941 his unit fought the Vichy French in Syria and then Waterman was posted to New Guinea in August 1942 where he served on the staff of the 7th Infantry Division until being evacuated in early 1943 with malaria. He was Mentioned in Despatches in 1942.

 Waterman and his wife settled in Canberra after the war and he went on to work for the Department of Immigration, serving on postings to London, Rome, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Washington and Athens before retiring in 1981. He died from cancer on 17 October 1985. Waterman was the nephew of Sr. May Hayman, a Canberra nurse who worked as a missionary at Gona in Papua who was murdered by the Japanese in 1942.

Description - height 5 feet 8 inches, blue eyes, fair complexion, brown hair, Church of England.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
AWM Honours & Awards
NAA RecordSearch - Series B883 (Second Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1939-1947)
The Canberran : Magazine of Canberra Grammar School, 1932 (p.45), 1936 (School roll, pp.26-27)
The Canberra Times - 27 June 1942, 8 September 1942, 9 November 1964, 3 January 1973, 25 October 1985 (obituary)