John Leslie Waldron (SN 504/Lt.) born in Melbourne, was a 21 year old fitter and driller when he enlisted in Melbourne on September 15th 1914. He embarked aboard the Ulysses on December 22nd and sailed to Egypt. He served with the 14th Infantry Battalion in the final months of the Gallipoli campaign. On returning to Egypt he was transferred to the 50th Battalion before moving to France in June 1916. Four months later, in October, he was awarded the Military Medal, his citation reading, ”When passing an Ammunition Dump, Sergeant WALDRON saw some boxes of grenades which had been set on fire by a German shell and promptly pulled the burning boxes of grenades clear of the rest of the dump, thus saving, at personal risk of his own life, a large amount of material from being destroyed.” In December 1917 he was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant, then promoted to lieutenant in May 1918. On Christmas eve in 1918, with the fighting over, he married Agnes Tingey at Cambridge in England. He returned home on the Marathon,, disembarked at Sydney on December 26th 1919 and was discharged on February 27th 1920.

His brother Alfred also served in the AIF and is honoured with a tree in the Avenue.