WARTON, Alfred Francis Herbert VETERAN

Name – WARTON, Alfred Francis Herbert VETERAN
Born – 07/06/1885
Died – 12/07/1950
Location – Number 113 Anglican Section
Mother – Mary Thompson
Father – William C. Warton

Notes – Alfred Francis Herbert Warton was born at Goulburn, NSW to Mary (nee Thompson) and William Warton. He came from a large family of siblings, but unfortunately many of his siblings died early. It would have been traumatic for him when he saw two of his brothers drowned. Alfred was required to report on the drowning incident in a court hearing when he was only five years old. The judge at the time congratulated him on giving his evidence in such a very clear manner! Can you imagine putting a five-year-old up in front of a court today? Read here.

Two other siblings are reported to have died in the nine months before the boys drowned. They are all buried in the same grave. His full siblings were Joseph, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Sydney, Ivy, Gertrude, James and Victor.

Sad beginnings for a young boy. His mother died when he was 17 years old. His father worked as a bootmaker. His father remarried and with his new wife he had the three other children. His half siblings were Eileen, Eric and Theo.

Alfred enlisted in WW1 on the 13th October, 1914. He was Private and his Service no. was 448. He has his fiancée, Kate Murphy as his nearest of kin. Before joining up he was a shearers cook, and seemed to like this job as you will see by the census records.

In 1925 at Charleville as a chef, in 1930 at Goondiwindi as a cook and in 1949 at Dalby as a cook living at Eileen Street. It is a fair chance he was a cook at his last job at Glenmorgan too. I have not found a marriage record for Alfred.

While in active service Alfred went to Cairo where he contracted Malaria. He went to Alexandria, Madras and the Gallop Peninsular. He refused to take orders from his NCO and was fined 4 days for Breaking Camp. He was in the 2nd Light Horse and then in the Australian Camel Corps. He was discharged on the 8th of May, 1919.  He lost his discharge letter and asked for another one in 1937.

Alfreds death is just a sad as his early life. He died at Glenmorgan where he was working with a fencing or clearing camp, probably cooking. When on July 11 his mate William Cody died from rolling into the campfire. Alfred went back and stayed with his neighbours that night, where he went to bed. The next morning, he was found to be deceased when the neighbours went to wake him for breakfast.

Alfred has no headstone.

Newspaper Article – Read here.

War Service File  – Warton, Albert Francis Herbert

Learn more about the Tara Cemetery here.