The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (140) Private Walter Parker, 5th Western Australian Mounted Infantry, Boer 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 , the story for this day was on (140) Private Walter Parker, 5th Western Australian Mounted Infantry, Boer War.

140 Private Walter Parker, 5th Western Australian Mounted Infantry DOI 22 January 1902

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Walter Parker.

Walter Parker was born on 6 July 1874 in Gingin, Western Australia. His father was stockman Joseph Mortimer; his mother was a Noongar woman named Mary Elizabeth Benyup. Shortly after Walter’s birth, his mother married John Parker, and Walter took his surname. Little is known about Walter’s early life, but records suggest that he moved to Greenough in the mid-west region of Western Australia, where he worked as a labourer.

In October 1899, after a worsening political deadlock in southern Africa, Boer forces invaded the British colonies of Cape Colony and Natal. Britain declared war on the two Boer republics: the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. In support of the British Empire, the Australian colonies committed troops to the conflict.

Parker volunteered for service in the first contingent of soldiers raised in Western Australia, but was rejected for reasons that are unclear. While it is possible that he was rejected because he was Aboriginal, there were more volunteers than spaces available in each contingent.

In early 1901, the 5th and 6th Contingents were raised and Parker, then working in the goldfields town of Coolgardie, volunteered for service and was successful. He joined the 5th Western Australian Mounted Infantry. After initial training at Karrakatta, in early March he and his unit departed from Fremantle on board the transport ship Devon.

The 5th Contingent arrived in Durban at the end of March, the 6th Contingent arrived a month later. The two contingents were amalgamated in South Africa, forming a battalion of mounted infantry.

When Parker arrived at the front, the war had entered its final stage, which would prove to be long and drawn out. In the previous year, British forces had captured the capital cities of both Boer republics, as well as many large towns and the railways. In the face of considerable losses, the Boer commanders had decided to continue their guerrilla war against the British.

By late 1901, British Commander-in-Chief Lord Kitchener had begun a scorched-earth campaign, interning Boer civilians in concentration camps, and sending columns of mounted infantry in drives across the veldt, hoping to capture or defeat his enemies. Serving under British and Australian officers, the Western Australian Mounted Infantry took part in these operations in the eastern Transvaal.

The conditions were extremely trying. In order to counter the Boers’ main advantage of mobility, British mounted infantry had to travel light. In September, the Western Australian troops were ordered to leave all tents and kit at camp before surrounding the town of Ermelo. After the town was captured, it was burnt to the ground. The troops then spent two weeks in incessant rain without shelter.

British logistics throughout the war were poor, and clean water was hard to come by. More than half of the Australian soldiers who died in South Africa died of illness.

Parker fell ill and was taken to a military hospital in the town of Standerton. He had contracted typhoid fever, commonly described in the records of the time as enteric fever. His condition worsened, and he died at Standerton on 22 January 1902.

Buried in Standerton Cemetery, Private Walter Parker was 27 years old, the earliest known Aboriginal serviceman to have died on active service.

Two of Parker’s younger half-brothers, Harry and James Dickerson, volunteered for service in the First World War. Trooper James Dickerson served in the 10th Light Horse Regiment and was killed on Gallipoli in August 1915. Private Harry Dickerson, the youngest, served with the 3rd Machine Gun Squadron throughout the Palestine campaign, and returned to Australia in 1919.

Walter Parker’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, alongside almost 600 Australians who died while serving in the Boer War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Walter Parker, who gave his life for us, for his country, and in the hope of a better world.

Thomas Rogers
Historian, Military History Section