Private Walter Christopher George Saunders of Warrnambool, Vic, worked as a groom prior to enlisting on 29 August 1916 with 10th Machine Gun Company and later transferred to 3rd Machine Gun Battalion. Saunders embarked for service overseas aboard HMAT Ascanius (A11) from Melbourne on 27 May 1916, and returned to Australia in June 1919. Private Saunders is the father of 337678 Lieutenant Reginald (Reg) Walter Saunders, 2/7th Battalion, who in the Second World War was the first Aboriginal serviceman to be commissioned in the Australian Army.