Service Number: 564
Unit: 2nd Infantry Battalion, E Company
Enlistment: 17/8/14
Embarkment: 18/10/14
Date of Death: 8/8/15
Location of Death: Lone Pine
His Story:
Sergeant Walter Henry Scott was just 21 when he was killed in action at Gallipoli. A well-known young man from Eastwood, he was the second son of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Scott. Before the war, he was part of a local volunteer corps based in Gladesville, a sign of his early commitment to service.
Walter enlisted with E Company, 2nd Battalion, and sailed with the first convoy from Australia. He was part of the fateful landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, part of the 3rd wave to land on the cove. He would spend his 21st and last birthday at Gallipoli.
From that day, the 2nd Battalion faced unrelenting combat. As described in The Gardens of Hell, they were among the first to ascend the steep gullies and seize the ridgelines, coming under ferocious Turkish fire. Over the following months, they rotated through front-line positions in places like Courtney’s Post, Quinn’s Post, and Steel’s Post.
Sectors “where every hour risked death from snipers, grenades, or fatigue.”
(The Gardens of Hell)
In July, Walter’s battalion began preparing for the attack on Lone Pine.
On the evening of 6 August 1915, the 2nd Battalion stormed the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine. The assault was intended as a diversion for the larger Suvla Bay landings. But it became one of the most savage fights of the campaign. The Turkish trenches were roofed with heavy timber which the Australians had to rip apart under heavy fire to get inside.
For three days and nights, soldiers fought in the suffocating dark of those trenches.
“The stench of blood, heat, and sweat was overwhelming,” one veteran later wrote.
Walter was there, among the melee, holding the line.
On 8 August, amidst brutal counterattacks and shellfire, Sergeant Scott was killed. Accounts vary. One suggests he was hit while manning a machine gun. Another says he was shot behind the parapet. But all agree; he died with bravery, amid the worst of the Lone Pine chaos.
Back home, the Cumberland Argus reported:
“He spent his 21st birthday at Gallipoli… Sergt. Walter Henry Scott was a well-known Eastwood young man.”
(The Cumberland Argus, 28 August 1915)
Walter is buried at Lone Pine Cemetery and remembered on the Ryde district honour rolls.
He was one of over 2,000 Australians killed or wounded in the Battle for Lone Pine — a battle that symbolised the courage and cost of the Gallipoli campaign.