| Biographical Notes |
 Note: Walter, born during the brief period of his parents' residence at the coastal town of Kingston in the south-east of South Australia, received his early education at the Bordertown Primary School from 1889 onwards and next at Unley from 1893 when he was aged 10 years and finally he took a course in accountancy at Adelaide. Being of an independent nature and strongly objecting to petticoat government at home (his own words) he left there early and boarded with his friend Max Gottchalk at Unley. In 1901 at the age of 18 he went to Western Australia in search of adventure. He has been described as a"character and a hard case" but he had a great sense of humour and was the most generous of men with a deep love of children on whom he delighted to shower gifts. He sent the infant EMS a large celluloid doll when she was aged six months. She promptly removed the nose with newly acquired teeth so that it had to remain noseless for the remainder of its natural life. At a later date there was the gift of a china doll and over the years always money at Christmas time.
In outback Western Australia he worked at a variety of jobs and listed to EMS well-sinking and working with beef cattle. At Broome, the H.Q. of the pearl fishing fleets he found the adventure he had been seeking, but refused to recount it. His one souvenir brought south was a pearl "blister" and this he had set in a gold brooch for his mother (now owned by EMS). At Perth he was a salesman, clerk and accountant, and at the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914 he was manager of a country bank with an annual salary of £1,000 which was a high one for that period.
During 1915 Walter enlisted at Perth in the 11th. Battalion and in due course arrived at France. Of his letters from there only one survives and another from an English hospital just before he was invalided out of the army with wounds. The advice to his youngest brother in the first of the two letters, was an effort to comfort him as Keith was considerably upset at not being accepted as a recruit due to a heart murmur. Keith had a Commission in the civilian military forces, and had been sent a white feather by an anonymous "friend". Although Walter dated his letter 1915 the Sector 7 Army Post Office date stamp is 1916.
A Company, 11th. Batt.
3 April 1915
My Dear Keith,
This is for yourself and the Mater, for as you will understand mail matter has to be cut down as much as possible. I'm glad to see that you have your commission & are likely to go into camp as an instructor. Let me tell you this much - the man who through physical defects is prevented from going to the Front is doing more than his bit if he is willing to throw up his private business & expend his knowledge & time in the monotonous work of training recruits. It's on the Instructor anyway that the recruit has to depend for that knowledge which perhaps may mean his & his mate's lives some day. Keep on going old chap & always believe that the kind of swine who always slings up "cold feet" to the man who stays behind is not worth consideration.
We are on the move but you will possibly know more about it than I do before you receive this. Of course the things that would interest you as a military man are the things I am not allowed to write about. Here's a tip in training your recruits. Give 'em all you can of trench digging practice & give 'em musketry till they know their rifles upside down. Teach them how to wear their packs, how to look after their rifles and equipment, how to pack their kit & commonsense things of that kind. Cut the frills out, they can grow those any old time. A man who knows how to fix his gear so it won't rub him sore and can keep his rifle in good nick on all occasions can afford to cut out fancy drill. By the way, address me as Private now as all reinforcement N.C.O.s revert to the ranks for a time at any rate. Will write home again when I can,
Love to all, Wal.
He soon regained his sergeant's stripes and lost and won them regularly due to riotous living when on leave in Paris, for besides being a hard drinker he was out for all the fun he could muster. Return to duty in the trenches saw his re-instatement.
Whether this letter was written in Egypt where the battalion served also, or was from France is not clear. He took the examinations for a Commission and gained a 100 percent pass, but his Colonel refused the necessary recommendation. In civilian life this person had been a suburban postmaster and authority had brought out a snobbish streak. He gave his reason - Walter lacked social position (hardly necessary for trench warfare one would think) and to this, never at a loss, Walter retorted that whereas he would enter a house by the front door the Colonel would be shown to the tradesmen's entrance which effectively ended all future advancement.
He cleared out a German machine gun post single handed and was recommended for the Military Cross, but again the Colonel blocked the way. On the Somme at Pozieres in July 1916, his Company went into battle a thousand strong and only 80 men came out alive including just one Sergeant, Walter Stevenson. On one occasion when the Australians were advancing and taking German trenches he was some three or four trenches ahead of the rest and when reprimanded and asked "what the Devil he thought he was doing", Walter the irrepressible retorted, "Winning a Victoria Cross for Sergeant Stevenson!"
He was wounded several times, and finally late in 1916 he was buried alive by an exploding shell and heard the battle raging above him as he came close to suffocation. A second shell disinterred him and caused head wounds and so damaged his hearing that his active service was at an end. He was at the First Australian Auxilliary Hospital, Harefield, near London, for some time being patched up and in January 1917 wrote from there:
Harefield,
9 Jan 1917
My Dear Keith,
Was glad to receive yours of 1 Jan 1916 & interested & pleased to hear of your progress in the Govt. Printing Works. It's almost too cold to hold the pen today so am writing just a short note. I received a letter of greeting from St. A.L.A. (St. Andrew's Literary Association, Unley) & have replied to it. Thinking over my letter to them some of my remarks re the young 'uns may sound a bit patronising but they were not intended that way. It was merely my expression of what I owed to the guidance of some of the older members whose names I recognised on the syllabus. I see you are down on it too and can well remember my nervousness & pride the first time I was asked to get on my hind legs at one of their meetings. I'm glad to see the old association is still going strong & wish it continued success. I'm sorry in a way that Ron is joining up but of course we want 'em all & the better the stuff the sooner we can do with it. See that you coach him up for a "Com." & that he gets it before he comes away. I know he's the right stuff & only wants coaching to make the right kind of coaching officer. I have written home to Blaine & to biddy by this mail as well because I am going on my furlough for sure next week. I know I've been saying that for some time past but I think it is right this time. I've been before my Board & hope it means a trip home but am not too sanguine. Have finished fighting for good & all from what my own M.O. tells me but I may be kept in England or sent to Egypt on duty. I've a First Class Drill instructor's certificate from the Imperial school in Zietoun, Egypt (100 per cent final exam.) so may be kept here instructing or as I've been an O.R. Sergeant may be put on a clerical job. I'm not particular only the cold trims me up. Alright when I can run about you know as it's a good bracing cold but it eats into your bones when you can't get about. Birdwood our General is coming here today but I don't see many of the boys going raving mad over it. He's not as popular as he was on the Peninsular despite the newspaper guff. Must close down now with the hope that the world is going well with you and all at home.
Wal.
This sober missive was anything but typical of him, but then, the youngest brother was only 7 when Walter left home so they really did not know each other well. There is a photograph dated January 1917 taken in London with this note on the back, "Will you get the "done me bit" smirk? All I want is the white flower of a blameless life in my robe now & I'd be complete." This was sent to Blaine as was an earlier snapshot taken aboard the troopship, dated 28 Oct 1915, and directed to "Dear Bolly - me & 3 of my pals taken on board. Hot as ------ which accounts for our "Ready, Aye, READY" pose." It was addressed to Blaine at Elder Smiths, Adelaide.
He wrote in a letter to EMS some 40 years later, "During the 1914/18 stoush I was at one time reported killed in action (gross exaggeration much to the disgust of some folk) and think the news must have reached S.A.. It's so long ago I forget the details but I remember Kathleen was having a row with the kid next door and was almost beaten in the argument when she stonkered the other kid with - 'Huh! anyway you didn't have a Nuncle killed at the war."
(Note: A record of Walter's war service and that of Ronald has been obtained from the War Office, Melbourne, but at the moment has been mislaid and a repeat has been requested - EMS)
He was discharged at Perth in 1917 and took up his life again in Western Australia but did visit home in 1921. He had enjoyed an off again on again friendship from before the war with a hospital matron, Rosina Patricia (Pat) Eleanor McDonald, whose father Claude McDonald of Victoria Park, W.A.was a wealthy grazier. He had married a second time and Pat had a much younger half-brother, Frank. Walter and Pat married at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Perth, on January 29, 1929. His own description of this event to EMS (with the ever present twinkle) was that the ceremony was "in the bottle department, not the main saloon bar". As was the then custom with a mixed marriage it was conducted at a side altar and not at the high altar. The Pub was a familiar place where most of his socializing was done.
Their early years together were spent "in the bush", but just where he did not say. He did describe with gusto his collection of pets and their oddities including a cockatoo that used army language in perfect imitation of Walter's voice to his embarrassment when the visitors had not the remotest connection with the army. This collection had to be disposed of when they moved back in the 1930s to Perth. He purchased 5 acres at Tuart Hill which, although only 4 miles from the city was still thick scrub that he only partly cleared for garden and fruit trees, leaving as much as he could of the natural growth. There was a three roomed cottage he variously described as a shack or shanty with which he was happily content but Pat was not. Every spring there was a magnificent display of wild flowers and he could name them all and several times he air freighted boxes of these to Clarence Park.
Walter corresponded with EMS for some twenty years and a packet of his letters survives, but not every one he wrote. They are far too long to quote in their entirety but some extracts will help to convey his character much better than any description. They are very different from the letters of 1917 and 1915 that he wrote to Keith.
He addressed his far distant niece as honey, apple of my eye, pulse o' my soul and even "my beloved bewchus blonde" and once as "my beloved & luscious blonde" as no doubt he did his other nieces varying the colouring.
1944 - November - A tender condolence on the death in a bombing raid over Germany of the fiance of EMS. That year he was appointed an Inspector with the W.A. Taxation Department with whom he had been for many years, and he was much pleased to be away for the most part from the confining office. He commented on the return to Australia of nephew Colin Stevenson from service with the R.A.A.F. and his being now in "poor shape", of the happier news of the engagement of niece Betty Stevenson to Bill Muller, and that niece Shirley Gordon's husband had gained his Commission, said he was a good bloque as of course anyone entering the Stevenson family would be whatever that person was previously! He complained that of the three of the third generation now married none had yet produced a fourth and he was seriously thinking of having monkey gland treatment in order to give the young 'uns the lead they seemed to need. In describing Sydney in pre-bridge days he wrote "had me a tabby over there once but as I haven't written to her for twenty years she probably isn't true to me anymore" and that he always had a weakness for "widdies" providing they didn't suspect him of honourable intentions.
1948 - June - Keith, described as "your immediate male ancestor" went to Canberra on a business trip and Walter remarked that having had an unsophisticated youth he might be in danger of making up for lost time and start wild oating and continued "Ha! sez you, ain't the paddocks of wild oats sown by one of me Unks enough for the family without dragging in me poor ole pa." He enquired of that most marvellous babe in the world (until the next arrives) Marion Kaye Muller and remarked "believe your cousin Colin had a spasm and has done it again" which referred to his second son Robert's birth in the previous February. Walter then went on to describe a female member of the clan as said by some to be as wide as a Flanders mare, but his own opinion was that she was just nice and comfortable from the rear. He'd spent May in the south-west of the state for his department, in the big timber country and had loved it, and he was looking forward to retirement at 65 in the following September. His weight was something over 14 stones (approximately 90 kilos), which he considered slightly rotund and having dieted for three months he had managed to pull off all of 6 ounces, and though you wouldn't call it falling away exactly, it was a START. There were still jarrah, tuart and sheoak trees on his five acre block that he was gradually cutting for fire wood and the wild flowers which he left undisturbed were magnificent.
1948 - November - Walter's wife had visited Adelaide - "You've met Pat now so don't suppose you could conceive of a man wanting polygamy". He was writing from Hollywood Repatriation Hospital where he had been for two weeks for the periodical treatment needed on ears, nose and glands due to war wounds and he was very happy in his grass widowerhood. It was no secret that he and Pat were incompatible. He made the best of it. She carped endlessly about the lack of amenities, social life and culture with a capital C of house and suburb, which he admitted to be so but of no consequence to himself and he was unsympathetic toward complaints. He supposed the then employer of EMS (not noted for generosity) "bucked like Hell at having to pay for the newly introduced 40 hour week". He had been doing the books for a butchering firm in his spare time at £2 per week but was forced to give this up as his head was so troublesome. Walter then described how, just before his retirement from the Taxation Department, Perth, he had been "chasing dirty dogs of foreigners who had defrauded the Government of lawful taxes" and of his gleeful enjoyment of their prosecution.
1949 - January - "Just read the par. in your last letter about Pat being homesick, she was homesick alright, she was just about broke." Pat who was independent financially from her father's estate, had passed through Adelaide once more on her travels, and sailed back to W.A, and described to her husband a mild dalliance on the moonlit deck but his opinion was that the poor chap's eyesight was certainly defective. Pat had been very good looking in her youth but now aged 55 looked that age. Concerning a photograph of himself, aged 20, Walter wrote-: "WHAT a parson the church missed in me. Couldn't I just have filled the kirk (and the collection plate) when I started telling 'em all I know of Sin and sinners! Nothing like practical experience to enable you to warn others".
1949 - November - Regarding the 5 acres of Swan Street, Tuart Hill, "We've been trying for many moons to get this place in order (due to post war shortages of materials this had proved difficult)....... at present it's just a shack, no room for anyone but just our two selves, from my point of view it's quite O.K. I've lived in many worse shanties in my travels, but your Aunt Pat don't see it my way". But house building was increasing in the area with the possibility of people hanging over his back fence which was not to be endured, and he gloomily supposed he must eventually sub-divide. He had obtained a Tax Agent's licence to enable him to take on such jobs at home but had refused a J.P. nomination as to sit on the bench frequently as would be expected of him was something he felt too old and too tired to carry out.
1950 - April - This letter announced an imminent arrival at Adelaide and said to expect "no NOT the Queen o' the May, but a thick necked, red faced, bulbous gent looming up on the horizon alookin' for his niece.'
May 11th. saw Walter at brother Keith's house at Clarence Park and EMS met her uncle for the first time since infancy. Her diary has this entry:- "Uncle Walter came to dinner. He has a strong family likeness, speaks like Uncle Ronald, but is a larger, heavier man. An extremely interesting talker and, if true, has had a wonderfully adventurous life and is a perfect dear." Two days later, Blaine with whom he was staying phoned to ask Keith if he was ready to have Walter as a house guest but he did not arrive until the 16th. He spent the evening spinning tales of his boyhood at Bordertown before Keith's birth. One story concerned the brothers' favourite game of "butchers" using lizards (unfortunate creatures), and selling short cuts to their sisters. Ronald aged 5 suggested that the new baby (Blaine) would cut up well but Maria saved him just in time from an early grave. During cowboys and Indians 3 year old Stuart was strung up in a tree ready for hanging but once more a timely intervention saved the day. Bedtime explained Blaine's anxiety to pass his brother on. Walter said next morning that he had slept splendidly, but no-one else had been so fortunate, as his rhythmic snores, hour after hour, threatened to raise the roof.
May 17th. was the great day of reunion for the brothers as Ronald had arrived from Melbourne and they dined together that night at the Richmond Hotel, Adelaide. EMS had chased about the town half the day in pursuit of a Candid Camera firm willing to photograph them together for a guarantee of less than 15 shillings, her finances being low, and finally located one at 7/6 (75 cents). Next morning the Adelaide "Advertiser" published the picture and an article with the usual several newspaper errors.
BROTHERS MEET AFTER 49 YEARS
About 1865 (1863 correct date) Robert Rowland Stevenson of Renfrewshire, Scotland, landed at Port Adelaide and after a few adventurous years, a part of which was spent among the wild aborigines of the Northern Territory, he married Maria Nicholls of Linton Victoria. There were five sons and four daughters of the marriage all born in South Australia. The five sons have not been together for the past 49 years, but they met at a reunion dinner at the Richmond Hotel last night.
Walter R.Stevenson, the eldest has lived in Western Australia since 1901. He has worked as clerk, accountant, salesman and executive positions in cities and towns and in the bush, and finally worked in the Taxation Department in Perth before he retired two years ago. He served for four years (only two) with the 11th. Battalion, A.I.F. World War 1.
Ronald R. Stevenson lives in Victoria. He has travelled extensively in Australia and has worked as farmer, bushman and electrician. He served overseas with the 9th. Light Horse during World War 1. and then went to England and Scotland with members of that Unit. A few years after returning to Australia he went to the wilds of New Guinea and was gold mining; he spent nine years in that country. He returned to Australia and lives almost a retired life.
Stuart H. Stevenson has spent most of his business life in the South Australian Public Service and is the Deputy Architect-in-Chief.
Blaine R. Stevenson has been 45 years in the service of Elder, Smitt & Co. and is the head of the building supplies department.
Keith M.Stevenson has been in the South Australian Government Printing Department for 38 years and is the Government Printer.
It will be noted that none became a butcher though Ronald as a jackeroo was the equivalent of an American cowboy!
The Walter visit to Clarence Park was enjoyed by all (except for the snoring). He chopped wood, took cold showers, took relatives to lunch in town, bought gifts for everyone and for Pat and friends at home with the aid of EMS and finally departed for Perth by train on June 5th. and was fare welled by a good turn out of relatives. He was quiet and sad and seemed reluctant to leave. A few days later another letter came.
1950 - June 11th.- "Beloved Bewchus Blonde" was the heading. At home once more he had promptly been put at the end of a broom and a tea towel and was rapidly losing weight - "but it was GOOD to be among my ain folk for a while and it feels a bit lonely back here." He still had been unable to get suitable materials for house improvements. Pat was touring the south-west with her poodle and old car and unfortunately his Tabby was out of town too and he was reduced to bitter beer and solitude and due to his own home cooking he had already dropped 8 ounces.
1952 - February - A long letter in which he discussed religion and death. Religion: he didn't have any and was chancing what happened next - "When the time comes and the black camel kneels at the door of my tent and I must mount and ride into the silence alone, I'll find out all there is to know if anything- and after further philosophising - "That camel is too near to me now - wouldn't take much straining of the ears to hear his pads already shuffling thro' the desert, it's too late to worry over my many sins - I've loved and hated, killed and spared, known fear and beaten fear, gambled and been cautious and generally run the gamut of human emotions and at the end I spose my Creed is as I started - Never go back on a Pal and give a girl an even break. Not much is it? "Then, referring to the purchase by EMS of the vacant allotment next door at Clarence Park - "Wotinell does your old man object to you becoming a landed proprietor for?" The shack roof was in the midst of being renewed and changed from a skillion to a gable type, the house was being rewired, relined, and to have a new bath, electric water heater, and to be painted. His bank balance was low, but praises be Pat's moaning had diminished temporarily though he expected a renewal at any time. Concerning himself, osteo-arthritis had set in.
1952 - December - Walter had been checking up on the quality of the local beer between his many public duties and other such good citizenship jobs. He was still doing some taxation work but mainly unpaid for friends. His massive brain wouldn't permit him to stoop to domestic tasks but given a cold chisel and a sledge hammer he could fix a watch in no time at all. The second half of the letter was written from Mt. Barker (W.A.) where he was standing in for the owner of a public house to allow him to take a holiday and he had enjoyed being in the midst of apple country and visiting Albany which he had known well years before.
1953 - April - Described great niece Marion Muller as a "forty niner and a dandy, that one." Discursed on dentists he had known and their methods and his own lack of natural teeth and his luck on now having a full war disability pension as it gave him free and constant treatment for his increasing arthritis. Blaine was at last building a house, Douglas Gordon had just returned by air from London and "Pat, the wife of me buzzom" was to be in Adelaide shortly by boat from Melbourne.
1954 - April - After 20 years at the shack at Swan Street, Tuart Hill, they were removing to French Street about half a mile away. He had been so ill that he decided to take an offer for the 5 acres and shack so that Pat might be settled comfortably in a house to suit her before he "pushed off". He hated leaving and having to be near neighbours though he had been able to secure a vacant allotment next door to the new house, the area being a half acre in all. There were no fruit trees and he was leaving 30 of his own planting and all bearing. French Street was to be subdivided and the buyer would make a nice profit. This he would have liked to have done himself but for his deteriorating health and his fear that in the midst of such activity he might break down and leave too many complications for Pat to deal with. In regard to Keith's decoration - "fancy having to put up with an I.S.O. Poppa (sounds like a dipso or a displaced person, don't it?) Suppose yer ole man has to get three low bows or knocks on the floor with their heads from his lowly serfs nowadays. Ah! me, the fierce light that beats on thrones etc. and I'm not being catty 'cos me, I'm a Buff and all sorts of things you wouldn't believe.". He'd been reading Damon Runyon and been immensely amused. At his latest Repatriation Hospital stay of some weeks he had been in the front row when the Queen and the "Dook" visited and when she stopped in front of him he just stared ahead as he wasn't lively enough to talk but a little boy was beside him, son of a dead soldier and entitled to free medical attention so both the Queen and the Duke turned to little Jimmy who was greatly bucked up. Said Walter, "She seems a nice lass and the pair of them struck me as being the best type of natural, well bred gentle folk such as I met in England many years ago. The Dook might be a bit of a lad though when he was out with the boys." He asked Jimmy how he came to break his finger (amongst other ailments) and "Fighting another kid said Jimmy, and Edinburgh grinned and asked - "Other kid have to go to hospital too?"
1954 - December - Pat had sent a piece of hand made pottery which Walter thought was "Ghastly" but according to Pat this only showed up his lack of Culture, so he was sending cash for Christmas to save his face. He was concerned that Ada was too sick and old to look after Ronald who had gone to live with her at the Malvern house, having left Melbourne for good. Walter himself was about to go into hospital again for another 14 days and hoped not to be there at Christmas and ended "I still luvs yer arder than an orse can kick".
1955 - July - Walter was again at Mt. Barker and supposed I had been thinking some wicked woman had stolen him away. Stuart's wife May (Princey) had died, Stuart was in Tasmania, Keith was seriously ill with pneumonia, and he expected that Stuart would sell up and find a smaller house. (He did not do so). They were well established at French Street and EMS was cordially invited to take a holiday with them and he was thinking of making another trip to Adelaide. The Park Hotel at Mt. Barker, W.A. was owned by his friend of many years, Les Hendry.
1956 - June - He wrote that he was having post operative treatment and his plans for Adelaide were temporarily cancelled. Blaine had been with him in January, and Stuart for two weeks later and had been entertained by the W.A. Architect-in-Chief who also arranged an extensive tour to the big timber country for him. Ronald had been found to have diabetes and was in hospital at Adelaide. All of which news items were commented on in his pungent way. EMS was still his only heart throb.
1957 - March - Lot 82, French Street, Tuart Hill, had been promoted to No. 209. EMS was the apple of his eye and as he was 73 and she 37 they were twins "sort of". He said he had always had simple tastes: wine, wimming and song and to tell the truth he was not much musical. He recalled a Corella parrot he had once owned that called itself Cock Eye and was noted for bad language in reply to news that great nephew Rod Muller who had been ill with polio had been given a young bird of this variety. Pat once more at Melbourne was to return by the "Oranto" and he hoped then to at last visit Adelaide and for the last time. His blood pressure was rising at the prospect of once more seeing EMS.
Walter reached South Australia by ship on May 1st. and proceeded to stay with the different relatives including those at Clarence Park, a few days with each for the next four weeks. He didn't look a day older or an ounce slimmer according to the EMS diary since the previous visit seven years earlier. He still enjoyed chopping wood and was the best cleaner of shoes "this side of the Black Stump" as he proved by doing every pair in this house. On the 17th. he left for Auburn via Riverton to stay with nephew Colin Stevenson and family then back to Clarence Park where he took his great nieces and nephew Muller to a local shop and over indulged them with 10 shillings worth of sweets, an enormous luxury for that time and Marion asked him if he were a millionaire and later when walking together Rod remarked casually "You must be a very wealthy old gentleman, uncle" which greatly amused him. Again he bought generous gifts for all and finally departed by train on June 1st. with a good muster of relatives to farewell him.
1957 - June 4th. - Walter wrote that he was safely home but off again, to a hotel at Geraldton to do the tax return of the owner, his friend, that he found the train journey a trial and the food atrocious so that the fruit, almonds, sweets and biscuits supplied from Clarence Park had kept him going. He commiserated with Bill Muller who had contracted hepatitis.
1958 - July - Walter sent money to pay for an outing together of all the great nieces and nephews to celebrate his 75th. birthday in September. (They went to the Adelaide Zoo). He admitted he felt fragile, mainly from "having to chuck gambling, wine and wimming".
1958 - October - He was doing only a little taxation work as "the old noddle gets tired and won't function". He referred to Ronald having his belongings stolen at the Nursing Home, Freeling, S.A. where he was now established with indignation because, "I would give my soul (pretty worn out) away, but I hate to have even a sock pinched as it lowers my good opinion of the human race". Ada, at 80, had her first dentures, and he was glad "she was past the gruel gurgling stage with them and that they function well." EMS was not to fail to relate any little anecdotes of the three Muller children she could remember as he enjoyed them so much and went on "despite my Scots ancestry I've a sense of humour you know, and can therefore respond to yours. You're not a Scot, anyway, Miss, nearer three parts Sassenach I'd say, but I love you just the same." He was delighted that the nippers had enjoyed their Zoo outing on September 3rd. as he did so want them to grow up knowing each other (but this was not to be) and he was so sorry that the generation of EMS was not close. He continued "Pat is off to a funeral today with her half-brother Frank who is 30 years younger. Frank's mother, who was the second wife of Pat's father, was knocked down by a car and killed by a Dutch parson. The old lady (aged 77 and 2 years his senior) was hurrying to church at 7 p.m. and dressed in dark clothes. She was a devoted Catholic and went daily to church. Frank was her only child, married with a family, a Diesel engineer, and had just returned from the whaling station at Carnarvon." Walter was suffering from increasing osteo-arthritis and had been put on a long course of injections and he thought it would be a good joke if they cured the arthritis and then he went and died on them (the Repat. hospital) from something quite different. He was sending EMS a photograph of himself taken recently, in remembrance".
1958 - October - He had ordered a "kind of junior encyclopaedia" for the Muller children which was to be common property of all three.
1959 - March - This was a thank you for a box of shelled almonds from the garden of EMS", his special favourite, which was doubtless responsible for his suspicion of a tail and that was only Nature balancing up his fatal good looks."
That was the last letter received. He died aged 76 on August 4th. 1959 at Hollywood Repatriation Hospital where he had been taken earlier that day with a heart attack. His brothers Stuart and Blaine flew to Perth for the funeral which took place at the Presbyterian section of the Karrakatta Cemetery with military honours.
A last anecdote concerning Walter's forceful personality. In 1921 or 22 he took EMS and her push-cart on a tram which was strictly against the Tramways rules. The conductor objected. Walter insisted, and overcame the problem by sitting the child in his lap, the cart on the seat beside him, and paying full fares for all.
He left a complicated Will. He had recently made another, much simpler and it awaited his signature and witnesses' so the old was the legal one, made in 1952. He left an estate valued at approximately £5,500 which was to be invested and held in Trust until his wife remarried or died. Meantime the interest could be used for her benefit if so needed. There were to be five shares, two for his brother Blaine and one each to his four great nieces and niece EMS.
It was not until almost 16 years later that Pat died and by then Blaine had died too. The estate had in that time increased to $21,786.98. At the final settling of the estate in 1975 those with one share received $4,191.68 each and Blaine's eldest grandson the double share, as he had been named as second beneficiary.
Pat stayed on at the French Street house until 1964 when it was sold (and the wheel barrow for £2.5.0 - the house bringing £2,750. Most unfortunately she had become an alcoholic in the latter part of Walter's life and now she suffered a series of strokes which finally paralysed her completely and the last 12 years were spent in hospital. She died at Annesley Private Hospital, Mt. Lawley at the age of 80 on February 17, 1975 and was cremated at Karrakatta Crematorium, Subiaco.
Walter's military record came to hand only after the above was typed so is appended here.
Medals:
1914/15 Star - the British War Medal - Victory Medal.
He enlisted at Blackboy Hill, Western Australia on October 9, 1915 in the 10th. reinforcements, 11th. Battalion.
Description: Age 31 years 6 months.
Height - 5 feet, 7 inches.
Weight - 144 pounds.
Chest measurement - 36 inches.
Complexion - dark.
Eyes - brown.
Hair - dark brown.
Religion - Presbyterian.
Distinctive marks - scar on left shin.
Walter had been medically examined on April 16, 1915 but was not called up until the October.
The Medical Certificate for a successful applicant for the First A.I.F. stated that he did not present any of the following conditions: Scrofula; phthisis; syphilis; impaired constitution; defective intelligence; defects of vision, voice, or hearing; hernia: haemorrhoids; varicose veins; marked varicocele or pendent testicle; inveterate cutaneous disease; chronic ulcers; traces of corporal punishment or evidence of having been marked with the letters D. or B.C.; contracted or deformed chest; abnormal curvature of the spine; or any other defect calculated to unfit him for the duties of a soldier. The doctor also attested that the applicant could see the required distance with either eye, his heart and lungs were healthy, he had the free use of his joints and limbs, and "he is not subject to fits of any description".
Walter's own comments on the above would have been well worth hearing!
No. 3006 - Private - Corporal - Private - Sergeant - Private (alterations)
STEVENSON, Walter Rowland - was admitted to hospital at Abbassia, Egypt, on November 29, 1915 with Mumps and a month later was on duty at Zeitoun. He joined"A" Company on March 2, 1916 at Serapeum and reverted to Private from Corporal. The battalion reached Marseilles, France, from Alexandria by the "Corsair" on 5 Apr 1916 for immediate duty. In France he was officially - 11th. Battalion, 3rd. Infantry Brigade. During May he had 3 short periods at the 26th. General Hospital, Boulogne with severe gastritis and "tumour on the lung" of which nothing further is mentioned. He was wounded in action at Etables on 18 Aug 1916 and also suffered shell shock and six days later the 2nd. Field Ambulance sent him to England by the hospital ship "Newhaven" from Calais. He was admitted to the Military Hospital, York and a month later was at Harefield Hospital, Middlesex. He was considered unfit for further trench warfare from January 1917 and was apparently doing accountancy at No.2 Command Depot but was sent back to Australia by the hospital ship "Benalla" which left Plymouth on Feb.13 for "Change and rest" and was not to be considered for further duty in less than five months. However, he was discharged as being medically unfit at the end of June (24th) 1917.
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