Lance Corporal Lionel Verelst Seaton

Lionel Verelst Seaton was born about February 1895 at Angledool, New South Wales, to parents Charles Verelst Seaton and Maud Augusta (née Wiggan) Seaton. His brother, Charles Ralph Verelst Seaton, was born in 1898. By 1914, the family had moved to Muttaburra, Queensland, where Lionel’s father was the manager at a livestock outstation called Mount Cornish. Lionel worked as a station hand and spent two years in the Citizen Military Forces.

Lionel Verelst Seaton enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 20 March 1916 as a private, and embarked on the HMAT Benalla on 1 May 1916. He was allotted to the 9th Australian Machine Gun Company, and appointed as a driver on 1 September 1916. He arrived in France with his unit on 21 November, and was promoted to Lance Corporal on 4 June 1917.

On 30 August 1917, Seaton took part in a concert by the 4 Australian Ammunition Sub-Park. He performed several songs, including “T’was in September”, a soubrette rendition of “One hour of love”, and “Boys in khaki”, in which he was backed by a chorus.

Seaton was wounded in action on 18 October 1917, with a gunshot wound to his right hip, and was invalided to England for several months. He returned to France in February 1918, and was allocated to the 3rd Australian Machine Gun Battalion on 4 April 1918. On 8 August 1918, near Accroche Wood, Seaton was leading a group of eight mules which were carrying forward a half-company of Vickers guns when he came under fire. Although he was wounded, Seaton succeeded in taking his mules through the barrage without losing any of the animals, and personally supervised their offloading when they reached the objective. For this act of gallantry and devotion to duty, Seaton was awarded the Military Medal (gazetted 11 February 1919). Seaton returned to Australia on 12 June 1919 aboard the Themistocles.

On his return to Australia, Lionel lived in Muttaburra, Queensland, close to his brother Charles. He married Edna Jean Aldith Cockburn, the daughter of a prominent pastoralist of the area, on 9 October 1929. He worked as a grazier for the remainder of his life. Lionel Verelst Seaton died on 20 June 1961, at the age of 66.