Walter Herbert BONNEY
Service
number: 4681. Age:
19 years 6 months. Enlisted: 18 Oct 1915.
Occupation: Carpenter. Next of kin: (mother) Mrs Mary Ann Bonney.
Address
on enlistment: Toorbul.
Service
Summary:
18 Oct 1915: 12 reinforcement 26 Battalion.
12 Apr 1916: Embarked from Sydney on HMAT Mooltan to England.
19 Dec 1916: Taken on strength 26 Battalion
in France.
A page from the
Service Record of Walter Herbert Bonney.
(Typical of all
Army enlistees.)
< Taken on strength from 12th reinf. France 19.12.16
< Pte proceeding O/seas to France per S.S. Victoria 12.12.16
< Pte T.O.S. of 2nd Div Sig Coy from 26th Bn
A.I.F. as Sapper. 17.6.18
|
“In early 1917, 26 Battalion joined the
follow-up of the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line and attacked at
Warlencourt (1-2 Mar) and Lagincourt (26 Mar). For his valorous actions at
Lagincourt, Captain Percy Cherry was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
On 3 May, the Battalion was also involved in the second attempt to breach the
Hindenburg Line defences around Bullecourt. Later that year the focus of the
AIF’s operations switched to Belgium. There, 26 Battalion fought in the battle
of Menin Road on 20 Sep and participated in the capture of Broodseinde Ridge on
4 Oct 1917.”
Like most AIF battalions, the 26th fought
to turn back the German spring offensive in April 1918, and in the lull that
followed mounted "peaceful penetration" operations to snatch portions
of the German front line. In one such operation in Monument Wood on 14 July the
26th Battalion captured the first German tank to fall into Allied hands - No.
506 "Mephisto". In another, on 17 July, Lieutenant Albert Borrella
was awarded the Victoria Cross. Later in the year the 26th participated in the
great offensive that began on 8 August, its most notable engagement being an
attack east of Mont St Quentin on 2 September. The Battalion's last action of
the war was the capture of Lormisset, part of the operation to breach the
Beaurevoir Line, on 3 October 1918. The 26th Battalion was disbanded in May
1919.” [1]
17 Jun 1918: Taken on strength 2 Div Sig
Coy.
29 May 1919: Returned to Australia from England
on HT Rio Negro to Sydney.
Life
Summary:
Walter Bonney (1896-1976) was the second youngest son of
Walter Herbert Bonney (1860-1924) and Mary Ann Wallwood (1859-1933) and was
born at Caboolture on 28 Feb 1896. The Bonney family had resided at Toorbul
since the 1880s.
Bonney
family home at Toorbul, 1902. [2]
Walter Bonney married Josephine Olive Fyfe in 1924 and the
couple moved to Ingham the following year where Walter Bonney worked as a builder. By the late 1940s the
couple had moved to Brisbane. Walter Bonney, aged
80, died 30 Jun 1976 at Brisbane and shares a memorial with his wife Josephine Bonney
at the Albany Creek Memorial Park.
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