Can you help us identify Len?

Leonard George Wall (Len) was born on 27 October 1890, at Whyte Yarcowie, a small rural locality in the mid-north of South Australia, the son of George Wall and Jessie Bryce. George and Jessie had five daughters and four sons, but two of their sons died in infancy:

Len’s paternal grandparents, Charles Wall and Mary Ann (nee Shepherd) arrived in Adelaide from Somerset in England in 1856 on the Switzerland with five young children. Charles was an agricultural labourer. Their fare to South Australia, (£1 for the parents and 10 shillings for each of the Wall children) was paid for by Charles’ brother-in-law, John Chewings, a pioneer of European settlement in the mid-north. The family went direct from the ship to Burra by bullock dray, then to John Chewings’ sheep property, Workongaree, near Hallett, on the Ulooloo Creek (which was the site of a short-lived goldrush in 1869).

Charles and Mary Ann had three more children in Australia including Len’s father, George, in 1859. George Wall married Jessie Bryce of Ulooloo in 1882. Jessie was the daughter of John Bryce a ploughman from Lanark in Scotland, who arrived in Adelaide on the James Jardine in 1859. John had worked for John Chewings for many years. George was working in the Burra copper mines, learning the blacksmith trade, when he married Jessie. Accompanied by Jessie and a growing family, they lived in small towns in the mid-north before moving to Orroroo in 1898.

For 22 years, George worked for R.T. Parnell, who owned a carriage factory, garage, saddlery and ironmongery in Orroroo. George died in 1919 and he was known for his hard work and courtesy.

Jessie died in 1939 and newspaper accounts demonstrate her enjoyment of reminiscing about the early pioneering days of settlement in the region. Her obituary stated “she was among the oldest and most highly respected residents of the town…was well known for her many acts of kindness and charitable deeds.”

Source - "OBITUARY." The Times and Northern Advertiser, Peterborough, South Australia 10 November 1939 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110221444 .

Len lived in Whyte Yarcowie until he was five years old. After a short period in Blyth, south of Burra, the family moved to Orroroo in 1898 and this was ‘home’ to Len. He attended Orroroo School and went to Sunday school at the Baptist church.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Len became a blacksmith, perhaps working alongside his father at Parnell’s. When he enlisted in the AIF, he described himself a ‘shoeing smith’, indicating that he specialised in forging, fitting and nailing horseshoes.

Len enjoyed athletics and football. He joined the Orroroo Cycling and Athletic club while still young and newspaper reports show that he continued to compete in running (and occasionally cycling) events at athletics carnivals in mid-north towns. He played football for Orroroo and is often mentioned in the list of best players.

In the final match of the 1912 season, Orroroo played Petersburg (renamed Peterborough during the war). Orroroo lost but Len was again among the best players. It is poignant that a member of the winning side was Eric Chinner, who became Lieutenant Chinner of the 32nd Battalion and was killed at Fromelles on the same night as Len. Eric Chinner’s remains have been identified among those who were discovered in the mass grave near Fromelles in 2008 and he is now buried in the Pheasant Wood Cemetery at Fromelles. Also playing for Petersburg were two of Len’s cousins, Albert and William Meadows. Albert, ‘a prominent footballer’ according to his newspaper obituary, was killed in France only a week after the deaths of Len and Eric.

In July 1915 there was a surge in enlistment as, in the wake of the landing at Gallipoli, men decided that it was their duty to fight ‘for the Empire’. It is likely that Len went into the District Office in Orroroo where he was given a rail ticket to Adelaide. On 9 July he presented himself at Keswick Barracks in Adelaide. He was 24 years old – although his enlistment papers said he was 25 – and named his mother, Jessie, as next of kin. He passed his medical, but because he had a slight skin complaint, his entry into camp was deferred while he underwent treatment. He finally reported to Mitcham Camp on 22 July. He was assigned to the 32nd Battalion when it was formed in mid-August, and became a member of A Company.

A and B Companies were made up of recruits from South Australia and C and D Companies came from Western Australia. There was much fanfare about this new battalion in South Australia, with gatherings, community support, Cheer-up Society activities, reviews of the troops by the governor and parades through the streets of Adelaide.

On 16 September, the South Australians members of the Battalion moved to a new camp at Cheltenham Racecourse and the West Australians, who had begun their training at Blackboy Hill near Perth, joined them at the end of September. As the time approached for departure of the 32nd Battalion, many men were given leave so they could be farewelled by their local communities. There was a large attendance at a social held at the Orroroo Town Hall on 9 October to farewell Len and three other residents from the Orroroo district who had joined the expeditionary forces. There were speeches and a musical programme before the presentation of a safety razor was made to each man:

One of the other men farewelled with Len at Orroroo on that evening was John Gordon McKenzie (191), who was also in A Company of the 32nd Battalion. The files of both men show they had clean disciplinary records – except that they were both admonished and fined two days’ pay for being absent without leave for a day on the weekend of the Orroroo farewell. Perhaps they had not obtained permission to attend the farewell – or perhaps they had decided that taking an extra day to spend with family and friends was worth any punishment that might follow. Gordon McKenzie was also killed at Fromelles and his remains, like those of Eric Chinner, were identified after the discovery of the mass grave in Pheasant Wood in 2008 and he now is buried in the Pheasant Wood Cemetery.

Training for the full battalion continued until they departed for Egypt on 18 November 1915, HMAT A2 Geelong. As reported in The Adelaide Register:

The 32nd arrived in Suez on 14 December 1915 and moved to El Ferdan just before Christmas. A month later they marched to Ismailia and then to the major camp at Tel-el-Kebir where they stayed for February and most of March. Tel-el-Kebir was about 110 km northeast of Cairo and the 40,000 men in the camp were comprised of Gallipoli veterans and the thousands of reinforcements arriving regularly from Australia. Their next stop was at Duntroon Plateau and then to Ferry Post until the end of May, where they trained and guarded the Suez Canal. Their last posting in Egypt was a few weeks at Moascar.

One soldier’s diary complained of being “sick up to the neck of heat and flies”, of the scarcity of water during their long marches through the sand and he described some of the food as “dog biscuits and bully beef”. He did go on to mention good times as well with swims, mail from home, visiting the local sights and the like.

Source - AWM C2081789 Diary of Theodor Milton PFLAUM 1915-16, page 29, page 12 During their time in Egypt the 32nd had the honour of being inspected by H.R.H. Prince of Wales.

After spending six months in Egypt, the call to support the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front came in mid-June. The 32nd left from Alexandria on the ship Transylvania on 17 June 1916, arriving at Marseilles, France on 23 June 1916 and they then immediately entrained for a three-day train trip to Steenbecque. Their route took them to a station just out of Paris, within sight of the Eiffel Tower, through Boulogne and Calais, with a view of the English Channel, before disembarking and marching to their camp at Morbecque, about 30 kilometres from Fleurbaix. Theodor Pflaum (No. 327) and Wesley Choat (No. 68), Ray’s brother, wrote about the trip:

They were headed to the area of Fleurbaix in northern France which was known as the ‘Nursery Sector’ – a supposedly relatively quiet area where inexperienced Allied troops could learn the harsh realities of Western Front trench warfare against the Germans. But the quiet times did not last long. Training continued with a focus on bayonets and the use of gas masks, assuredly with a greater emphasis, given their position near the front. The 32nd moved to the Front on 14 July and Len was into the trenches for the first time on 16 July, only three weeks after arriving in France.

D Company’s Lieutenant Sam Mills’ letters home were optimistic for the coming battle:

On the 17th they were reconnoitering the trenches and cutting passages through the barbed wire, preparing for an attack, but it was delayed due to the weather. The overall plan was to use brigades from the Australian Fifth Division to conduct a diversionary assault on the German trenches at Fromelles. The 32nd Battalion’s position was on the extreme left flank, with only 100 metres of No Man’s Land to get the German trenches. As they advanced, they were to link up with the 31st Battalion on their right. However, their position made the job more difficult, as not only did they have to protect themselves while advancing, but they also had to block off the Germans on their left, to stop them from coming around behind them.

On the morning of the 18th, Len’s A Company and C Company went into the trenches to relieve B and D Companies, who rejoined the next day. Lieutenant Frederick Stolz described the calm before the storm:

The Zero Hour for advancing from their front-line trenches was to be 5.45 PM, but the Germans knew this attack was coming and were well-prepared. They opened a massive artillery bombardment on the Australians at 5.15 PM, causing chaos and many casualties. Len’s A Company, along with C Company were in the first and second waves to go over the parapet at 5.53 PM. B Company & D were in the third and fourth. The men, despite heavy losses, were successful in the initial assaults and by 6.30 PM were in control of the German’s 1st line system (map, Trench B), which was described as “practically a ditch with from 1 to 2 feet of mud and slush at the bottom”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 11

Unfortunately, with the success of their attack, ‘friendly’ artillery fire caused a large number of casualties because the artillery observers were unable to confirm the position of the Australian gains. They were able to take out a German machine gun in their early advances, but were being “seriously enfiladed” from their left flank. By 8.30 PM, their left flank had come under heavy bombardment with high explosives and shrapnel. Return bombardment support was provided and the 32nd were told that “the trenches were to be held at all costs”.

Source - AWM4 23/49/12, 32nd Battalion War Diaries, July 1916, page 12

Fighting continued through the night. The Australians made a further charge at the main German line beyond Trench B, but they were low on grenades, there was machine gun fire from behind them from the emplacement at Delangre Farm and they were so far advanced that they were getting shelled by both sides. In the early morning of the 20th, the Germans began a counterattack from the Australian’s left flank, bombing and advancing into Trench A (map). Given the Australian advances that had been made earlier, the rear Trench E had been left almost empty, which then enabled the Germans to regain that trench and envelop the men of the 32nd. At 5.30 AM the Germans attacked from both flanks in force and with bombing parties. Having only a few grenades left, the only resistance they could offer was with rifles:

What was left of the 32nd had finally withdrawn by 7.30 AM on the 20th. The initial roll call count was devastating – 71 killed, 375 wounded and 219 missing, including Len. To get some perspective of the battle, when Charles Bean, Australia’s official war historian, attended the battlefield two and half years later, he observed a large quantity of bones, torn uniforms and Australian kit still on the battlefield. The final impact was that 225 soldiers of the 32nd Battalion were killed or died from wounds sustained at the battle and, of this, 166 were unidentified. Lieutenant Sam Mills survived the battle. In his letters home, he recalls the bravery of the men:

With about 85% of the 32nd Battalion having been killed, wounded or taken prisoner, there was much confusion and great difficulty in working out what had happened to each man. Len Wall was one of the many men who were missing. Late in August, Len’s mother Jessie received the news that her son had been missing since July 20 and she placed a notice in newspapers.

For the families of missing men, each day was one of uncertainty and suspense. They waited and longed for news, but for many, it was months before they received any further information from the military. On 19 October, Jessie Wall turned to the Red Cross Information Bureau for assistance, The Bureau assisted families of wounded or missing men to get any available information about them. She wrote of the family’s anxiety, and of the hopeful possibility that he was a prisoner of war. A few days later, she sent £1 so that a cable could be sent to London asking for further enquiries.

When she had heard nothing by January, she wrote again, asking if there had been any news. There was none. After three more months with no further news, a letter from the Red Cross Information Bureau finally arrived in Orroroo. While emphasising that that news was unofficial, they passed on a ‘slip’ gathered by an investigator. Although the family would by this stage have known that good news was unlikely, they would have been devastated by what they read.

William Blacksell remains among the unidentified soldiers from the battle. Jessie immediately acknowledged the letter:

The Red Cross had informed her of 15 shillings remaining of the money she had sent them, Jessie added, ‘… please put to Red Cross funds. Only too pleased to help you if only a small mite.’ Jessie and her family accepted that they had lost Len. Their grief and their love for him was demonstrated when his two elder sisters, Maud Bedford and Isabel Inglis both gave birth to sons during 1917. Both boys were named Leonard.

1916 was a sad year for the extended Wall family. Three cousins were killed in France within days of each other. Len had died on 19 July. Albert Percy Meadows (1780) of the 10th Battalion, the son of George Wall’s sister, Maud, died a week later of wounds suffered at Pozieres. William Charles Baker from Broken Hill, the son of George’s sister Matilda, was also killed at Pozieres, serving with the 17th Battalion. He was killed sometime ‘between 26 July and 7 August’. Like Len, he has no known grave.

In 1921, a circular was sent to the families of missing men in 1921 in the hope that there might be information that the families had come across to aid in the discovery of their remains. Jessie’s response shows that she was resigned to Len’s fate, but she was still hoping for more news of her son. She enclosed the information she had received from the Red Cross, and lamented she had not had his ‘disc or kit or any of his things sent to me.’ She added:

Private Leonard Wall’s name is inscribed on Panel 6 of the V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial at Fromelles which commemorates all the Australians killed at Fromelles whose bodies were not recovered after the battle.

Len’s remains were not recovered; he has no known grave. After the battle, the Germans recovered 250 Australian soldiers and placed them in a burial pit at Pheasant Wood. This grave was discovered in 2008 and since then efforts have been underway to identify these soldiers by DNA testing from family members. As of 2026, 181 of the soldiers have been identified, including 41 of the 166 unidentified soldiers from the 32nd Battalion.

We welcome all branches of Len’s family to come forward to donate DNA to help with his identification. especially those in mid-North South Australia, Somerset, England and Lanark, Scotland. If you know anything of family contacts, please contact the Fromelles Association. We hope that one day Len will be named and honoured with a known grave.

Please visit Fromelles.info to follow the ongoing identification project and Len’s story.