The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (NX35492) Gunner Walter Ernest Brown VC DCM, 2/15th Field Regiment, AIF, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Gerard Pratt, the story for this day was on (NX35492) Gunner Walter Ernest Brown VC DCM, 2/15th Field Regiment, AIF, Second World War.

NX35492 Gunner Walter Ernest Brown VC DCM, 2/15th Field Regiment, AIF
Presumed killed 28 February 1942
Photograph: A02600

Story delivered 21 February 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Gunner Walter Ernest Brown.

“Wally” Brown was born on 3 July 1885 in New Norfolk, Tasmania, to Sidney and Agnes Brown. Educated locally, Brown was later employed as a grocer in Hobart. In 1911 he moved to Petersham in Sydney, where in July 1915 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force.

Brown was allotted to the 11th reinforcements of the 1st Light Horse Regiment, and following a period of training in Australia embarked for Egypt aboard HMAT Hawkes Bay in October 1915.

In July 1916, eager to join the infantry in action on the Western Front, he invented a story of having lost his false teeth in order to be sent to Cairo to obtain new ones. There he contrived a transfer to the 20th Battalion, sailing for France in October.

However, after only a short period in action at Flers Brown was reassigned to the 1st and later 2nd Field Butcheries, well behind the front lines. It was six months before he returned to the 20th Battalion in time for the fighting around Passchendaele in August 1917. For his leadership and his “consistent devotion to duty” in tending the wounded Brown was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and promoted to lance corporal. Brown’s friend Private Claude Hughes was posted as missing following the action, and Brown refused leave in order to stay and search for him. He found Hughes’ body in an unmarked grave, and erected a wooden cross over it before returning to duty.

Brown was promoted to corporal in April 1918. By this time the 20th Battalion had moved into the front lines around Villers-Bretonneux. In July Brown was part of an advance party that occupied some recently captured trenches near Accroche Wood, where a sniper’s post had been harassing a section of the line. Brown located the source of fire and, with a Mills bomb in each hand, charged toward the post. His first bomb fell short, but Brown jumped into the trench, knocked down a German soldier and forced a further 11 to surrender. For this action, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Brown was promoted sergeant in September and returned to Australia. After being discharged he worked as a brass-finisher and as a water-bailiff with the New South Wales Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission. In 1932 he married Irish-born Maude Dillon, and they later had a son and a daughter.

In June 1940, now 54, Brown lied about his age by 15 years and enlisted for service in the Second World War. His previous record was soon discovered and he was granted his old rank of sergeant in the 2/15th Field Regiment, part of the 8th Division.

The division moved to Malaya in August 1941, by which time Brown had at his own request reverted to the rank of gunner. War with Japan erupted in December, and the 2/15th Regiment provided fire support in Malaya and on Singapore. On the 15th of February 1942 the guns on Singapore fell silent as the British and Commonwealth forces surrendered.

But Brown refused to become a prisoner of war. It is believed he escaped Singapore aboard a row boat with a small party of men. They made it to Sumatra, where Brown was separated from the group and was presumed to have been killed on 28 February 1942.

Described as one “stamped with the mark of a born soldier”, Brown is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial at the Kranji War Cemetery.

Brown’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with around 40,000 other Australians who died in the Second World War, and his photograph is displayed today beside the Pool of Reflection.

This is but one of many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Gunner Walter Brown VC DCM, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Bryce Abraham
Summer Scholar, Military History Section

Sources:
Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Moremon, A bitter fate: Australians in Malaya & Singapore, December 1941–February 1942, Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2002.

Rowley Richards, A doctor’s war, HarperCollins, Sydney, 2005.

Anthony Staunton, Victoria Cross: Australia’s finest and the battles they fought, Hardie Grant Books, Prahran, Victoria, 2005.

Lionel Wigmore, They dared mightily, Hardie Grant Books, Canberra, 1963.