39th Infantry Battalion
Killed In Action
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Walter Newton Anderson (SN 3016) was married with two sons, a 31 year old traveller, when he enlisted on February 18th 1916 Little more than two weeks later he embarked aboard the Ballarat as a reinforcement for the 39th Battalion. On April 25th 1917, when approaching the English coast, the Ballarat was torpedoed but he made it safely ashore. After further training in England, he crossed to France in late September and joined the 39th Battalion in Belgium on October 8th. Just four days later, on October 12th 1917, he was one of nine Ballarat boys to be killed in action that day in the fighting at Passchendaele. 33 years of age at his death, he has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres, Belgium.