Cpt GT Wallack, AIF

Captain Gordon Townshend WALLACK
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WALLACK
Captain Gordon Townshend

Adjutant, Headquarters, 2nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force

Born 18th November 1885 at Hobart, Tasmania
[Birth certificate 33 1885 461 Hobart Tas]

Educated: Sisters' School & Queen's College, Hobart, Tasmania; Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, Victoria

Single; Soldier, of Victoria Barracks, Paddington, Sydney, NSW

Next of Kin listed as: Father; Major-General Ernest T. Wallack (CB, CMG). Mother; Alice May Wallack (nee Silvester), of 'Lucerne', Kingston Beach, Tasmania

Photos of Captain Wallack are known to exist in the following locations:
War Services of Old Melburnians 1914-18. Sydney Town & Country Journal 16 Sep 1914 p22 & 9 June 1915 p31. Sydney Mail 9 Jun 1915 p34


Died of wounds
19th May 1915
at Lone Pine, central Anzac sector
Aged 29







2nd Battalion, AIF


Grave:
Lone Pine cemetery


Epitaph:

Born To Die
18th November 1885
Died To Live 19th May 1915


Notes:
Previously served in the Royal Australian Garrison Artillery (photo on this page shows him wearing that unit's uniform).

In 1896, at age 11, joined the Tasmanian Auxilliary Forces as a bugler. Lieutenant in Cadets, Buckland's School, Hobart. Commissioned in 10th Australian Infantry Regiment 1st March 1906. Transferred to 5th Australian Infantry Regiment (Melbourne) 1st January 1907. Promoted to Lieutenant 4th Feb 1908. Passed the examination for entrance to the Permanent Forces, Royal Australian Garrison Artillery, 1st July 1908. Promoted Captain 1st March 1914. Appointed Captain, A.I.F., 15th August 1914; posted to 2nd Battalion as adjutant. Appointed second-in-command of a Company while in Egypt. Educated at C.E. Sister's School, Hobart; Melbourne Church of England Grammar School; St. Peter's College, Adelaide.

Father, Brigadier general E.T. Wallack, Transport service ([of] Sydney), 'Dangerously ill' at Ghezireh [Egypt]. 134th/135th Casualty List: Sydney Town & Country Journal 26 Jan 1916 p14).

Killed firing after the Turkish attack had been beaten back; 19th May:
'Dawn found the whole garrison firing from the parapets, the men often sitting on the traverses without the least regard for their own safety. But as the attacks waned and the light increased, there came from the enemy close at hand in the scrub as well as from his trenches a fire which grew in accuracy. Many of the defenders, realising that it was time for heads to be withdrawn below the parapets, began to take cover and shoot only through the loop-holes which by this time had been made in the parapets of all fire-trenches. For others the sport of shooting at the occasionally fleeing Turks was all too alluring. A considerable number at this stage lost their lives. Captain Wallack, who had been in temporary command of the 2nd Battalion after Colonel Braund's death, was killed in the 2nd Battalion sap, and Lieutenant L.W. Street at the head of that of the 3rd Battalion.' (Bean V2 156; Diagrams showing position of 2nd & 3rd Battalion saps p142, 143).



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