Service dress tunic : Private W D Walster AIF

Australian Army other ranks unlined, khaki wool twill service dress jacket, with shoulder straps, pleated breast pockets with pointed flaps, and large expanding pockets over each hip, also with pointed flaps. The jacket has a self fabric waistband. A box pleat extends from the centre of the back yoke to the bottom of the skirt for ease of wear. The back of the tunic is also loosely pleated into the waistband. There are light brown celluloid buttons down the front of the jacket; however they are missing from the left and right cuff and the right hip pocket. The collar fastens with a single brass hook and eye. There is a white cotton patch pocket for a shell dressing inside the right front panel below the waistband. This patch pocket has an illegible stamp on it. The left bottom corner of the tunic and pocket are torn and the right pocket has blue pen stains on it.

This c 1914 pattern tunic was worn by William (Bill) Davison Walster. At the declaration of hostilities in August 1914, Bill Walster, then almost aged 19, rushed to enlist and was accepted into the AIF. Walster was under aged and required his parent's permission to enlist, which his father refused to do. As a result, Walster was withdrawn from the AIF and obliged to wait almost a year, re-enlisting on 31 July 1915. 3464a Private Walster embarked for overseas service with the 53rd Battalion aboard HMAT Port Lincoln on 14 October 1915. After training in the Middle East, Private Walster applied for a transfer to the artillery, and was transferred to 115 Howitzer Battery (25 Howitzer Brigade). After arriving in France on 25 June 1916 he was transferred to 114 Howitzer Battery (14 Artillery Brigade) on 3 July 1916. Walster served the rest of the war with the 114th Howitzer Battery, before returning to Australia aboard the transport Wyreema on 14 April 1919. Walster was discharged from the AIF on 26 July.