Walter McGough
Name: Walter Colombo McGough
Rank: Private
Service Number: 4175
Unit Served: 27th Battalion
Personal Details: Walter was born in Blumberg (now known as Birdwood), South Australia in in mid 1892 to Thomas and Katherine McGough. He went to Blumberg School and was a butcher when he enlisted at the age of 23 years and 7 months. He was 5" 7 1/4" tall and weighed 130 lbs, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark hair.
Military Service: Walter enlisted on the 6th December 1915. He was assigned to the 10th Reinforcement of the 27th Battalion and embarked for overseas from Adelaide aboard the "Mongolia" on the 9th March 1916. After a short time in Egypt he embarked from Alexandria aboard the "Ivernia" on the 20th May and arrived in Marseilles on the 26th. He was taken on strength by the battalion on the 6th July. On the 4th August, exactly a month before his younger brother Henry, Walter was killed in action at Pozieres as the 27th Battalion attacked the OG1 and OG2 trenches. Like many of the men killed in this area, his grave was not located immediately after the war, and so, like his brother, his name was to be on the wall of the Australian National Memorial at Villers Brettoneux. However in 1937, his grave was located and he was identified by his ID disc which was still on his body. His remains were reinterred in the London Cemetery and Extension. His ID disc was sent to his parents, but his mother had died in 1924 and the authorities had been unable to trace his father after 1931, so they never knew that their son's remains had been located.
Age at Death: 24
Date of Death: 4th August 1916
Cemetery Details: London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval, France Plot V, Row G, Grave 15
