Walter Peeler

Walter Peeler was born on 9 August 1887 at Barker’s Creek near Castlemaine, Victoria, the eighth child of William Peeler, a farmer and miner, and his wife Mary Ellen. Raised in rural Victoria, he worked on his parents' fruit orchard, trained as a mounter at Thompson’s Foundry in Castlemaine, and laboured in the timber industry throughout Gippsland. He married Emma Hewitt at Castlemaine in July 1907, establishing a household in Leongatha that produced four children before the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. Peeler volunteered for the First Australian Imperial Force on 17 February 1916 under service number 114, joining the machine-gun section of the newly raised 3rd Pioneer Battalion. Following preliminary instruction at Seymour, he embarked from Port Melbourne aboard HMAT Wandilla in June 1916, undertook four months of intensive tactical training on Salisbury Plain, and crossed to France with his unit in late November. Promoted to lance corporal, Peeler received shrapnel wounds to the face and a gunshot graze to his cheek on 7 June 1917 during the opening assault of the Battle of Messines, returning to his battalion within days after field dressing.

For the assault on Broodseinde Ridge on 4 October 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres, twenty-four Lewis gunners from the 3rd Pioneer Battalion were attached to the 10th Infantry Brigade to provide mobile anti-aircraft protection and flank fire support. Peeler was assigned to support the 37th Battalion as it advanced across shattered terrain east of Zonnebeke toward Levi Cottages. When intense German machine-gun and sniper fire from fortified shell-holes halted the leading infantry wave, Peeler dashed forward alone across exposed ground, firing his Lewis gun from the hip to destroy the enemy positions and clear the axis of advance. For his extraordinary initiative and bravery throughout the assault, he was awarded the Victoria Cross. The verbatim official citation promulgated in the Fourth Supplement to The London Gazette of 23 November 1917 (published 26 November 1917, Issue 30400, page 12329) states:

"War Office, 26th November, 1917. His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officer, Non-commissioned Officers and Men: — No. 114 L./Cpl. Walter Peeler, Aus. Imp. Force. For most conspicuous bravery when with a Lewis gun accompanying the first wave of the assault he encountered an enemy party sniping the advancing troops from a shell-hole. L./Cpl. Peeler immediately rushed the position and accounted for nine of the enemy, and cleared the way for the advance. On two subsequent occasions he performed similar acts of valour, and each time accounted for a number of the enemy. During operations he was directed to a position from which an enemy machine gun was being fired on our troops. He located and killed the gunner, and the remainder of the enemy party ran into a dugout close by. From this shelter they were dislodged by a bomb, and ten of the enemy ran out. These he disposed of. This non-commissioned officer actually accounted for over thirty of the enemy. He displayed an absolute fearlessness in making his way ahead of the first wave of the assault, and the fine example which he set ensured the success of the attack against most determined opposition."

Eight days after his actions at Broodseinde, during the assault on the slopes of Passchendaele on 12 October 1917, Peeler was severely wounded in the right arm by machine-gun fire. Evacuated to England, he underwent extensive convalescence and was invested with the Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 8 January 1918. He rejoined the 3rd Pioneer Battalion in France in May 1918, received advancements to corporal and sergeant, and returned to Australia aboard HMAT Medic in October 1918 alongside other decorated soldiers to support the Commonwealth war loan drive. Following his military discharge in December 1918, Peeler served for six years with the Victorian Department of Lands in soldier settlement administration, managed an orchard, and worked at the Sunshine Harvester Works. In 1934, he was chosen from numerous applicants to become the inaugural custodian of the newly dedicated Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

At the age of fifty-two, Peeler understated his birth year by fourteen years to satisfy physical enlistment standards and joined the Second Australian Imperial Force on 27 May 1940 under service number VX8345. Appointed Company Quartermaster Sergeant of 'D' Company, 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion, he deployed with his unit aboard HMT Queen Mary to the Middle East in April 1941. During the Syrian campaign against Vichy French forces, his battalion supported the 25th Infantry Brigade at Merdjayoun—where Peeler personally led a recovery party under fire to retrieve four wounded Australians—and subsequent assaults at Damour. In February 1942, the 2/2nd Pioneers were diverted from planned operations in Sumatra and landed on Java as part of Brigadier Arthur Blackburn's 'Blackforce'. Peeler fought through four days of heavy defensive clashes along the Leuwiliang River against the Imperial Japanese Army’s 2nd Division until the Dutch colonial administration surrendered the island on 8 March 1942. Captured with his battalion, Warrant Officer Class II Peeler spent three and a half years as a prisoner of war, surviving brutal forced labour under Japanese command on the Burma-Thailand Railway. Repatriated in October 1945 aboard the troopship Highland Brigade, he returned to Melbourne to resume his custodian duties at the Shrine of Remembrance. For his decades of public stewardship at the monument, Peeler was appointed an awardee of the British Empire Medal (Civil Division) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 1961. He retired in 1964 and died at his South Caulfield residence on 23 May 1968, receiving burial with full military honours in Brighton General Cemetery.