Walter Joseph Stores

   Another name for Walter was Walter Edward Stores.

  Research Notes:

source: Kerry Ross Boren

  Noted events in his life were:

• note. ⁶⁹² Ross Miller notes:
Walter Joseph
Walter was the second son born to Thomas and Catherine of Tumbarumba. Born in 1870, he married Mary Jane Cahill of Adaminaby and had 11children. Walter was a songwriter and a recording held in the National Library of Australia makes reference to his work.
Their eldest, Walter Edward, was born at Adaminaby on 8 October 1895. It appears he had a hard childhood and ended up being sentenced to reform aboard the ship Sobraon after borrowing his father's horse without permission and being arrested in another town. Walter senior did not swear a full complaint so the charge was dismissed, but he was remanded to the reform ship. The Sobraon was used as a reformatory housing more than 200 boys at a time. After the Neglected Children's and Juvenile Offenders' Act of 1905 introduced probation, numbers declined on the Sobraon. Boys were either discharged to parents or guardians, apprenticed out or sent to the Mittagong Farm Home for Boys or the Brush Farm Reformatory. In 1911 the Sobraon was abandoned. It was sold to the Australian Navy, renamed HMAS Tingira and used as a training vessel until 1927.
The entrance document for Walter is an eye-opener. He was committed on 19 June 1909 with the warrant declaring "he is living under such conditions as indicates that he is lapsing into a career of vice and crime." His education was described as fair, but not up to ……. standard. He had been at public school for the past 18 months, and Catholic school before that. His character was described as bad, but he had not been before the Bench. "Child has been allowed to grow up without control and surrounded by evil influences in his home. His companions have not been particularly bad boys."
In Walter's own words: "I was sent here for getting drunk. Another boy had some whisky and I took some of it. Sometimes I used to wag it from school and get about the town. I'd had grog a couple of times before this but I didn't get drunk; I was only "………..". I used to buy the grog and tell them it was for my mother, that she was sick. I didn't know any boys on here before I was sent here; I have never been before the court before and I never knew anybody belonging to me here." Walter was described as healthy with no marks or bruises. A well-built though rather dull-looking boy, evidently gone wrong through neglect and bad home influences.
Walter's father Walter is described as a general labourer earning about 20 shillings a week on average. "The father is a drunkard of bad moral character; the mother appears to take no interest in her children and is heard to have encouraged this child, a viscous courses. Independently ………….(blacked out). The father agreed to pay five shillings a month towards his son's upkeep. He was conditionally discharged on 11 January 1911 back to Tumbarumba.
He was a 21-year-old boundary rider based at Kiandra NSW when he enlisted as Private No.1816 in the AIF and placed in the 4^th Reinforcements for 7 Battalion, on six shillings a day. He was 5' 8.5", weighed 148 lbs, dark complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair. (RC)

7 Battalion went into Gallipoli in the second wave 11/8/1915 and saw plenty of action including the Battle of Lone Pine. Walter had suffered from fits up until mid teens . There was no reoccurrence until one day in November 1915 on Gallipoli he was buried by the detritus thrown up by a nearby exploding shell and the old condition reasserted itself, now being diagnosed as epilepsy complicated by shell shock. His army record is complex and shows he has an attitude with authority problem through alcohol, apart from the complications of epilepsy.

He spent time in hospital on Lemnos, at Kingston on Thames near London and in Cairo. He did 28 days punishment for an unknown offence and was in hospital at Cairo for diarrhorea on 4/12/15. He was arrested for being drunk in town and resisting arrest at 5.20pm on Christmas night in 1915 - this attracted 14 days punishment and five shillings fine. He was back in hospital three days later with an injury to his head. There follows a succession of offences including being AWOL for a day which cost him 168 hours detention which was remitted to seven days' pay, disobeying orders and inciting others to do so (14 days' detention and 14 days' loss of pay), drunk in public and was also wrongly identified as being the victim of strangulation in Cairo.

In amongst all this he was in and out of hospital with epilepsy. He went before two medical boards before being declared shell-shocked and permanently unfit for service on 1 September, 1916.

After returning to Australia, Walter re-enlisted on 1/2/1918 at Warangarattta using his mother's surname. Old habits quickly re-emerged: he was missing from Broadmeadows camp for two days, was AWOL on four other occasions and twice failed to be on parade. His epilepsy gave him away, and he was once again demobbed, his service ending on 22/5/18. A saga began over a war pension for him. Papers were originally sent to Henty c/- E. Stores and then he was tracked down to c/- Larkins Hotel in Holbrook. He explained to authorities that the mail for his first appointment did not catch up with him until after the time set for assessment in Wagga Wagga. He intended to present himself in Wagga Wagga in three weeks time when he had saved enough money for the fare.

However, he never made it to the office in Wagga Wagga. A police report at the request of the pensions office said Walter was trapping rabbits and earning 30 shillings a week and had food and lodgings. He had been employed for six weeks but had been able to work for two weeks as the result of an accident, being thrown from a sulky. He was also employed by his brother on road making for 10 shillings a day, however he was not able to do heavy work as too much hard work bought on the nervous breakdown again.

After chasing Walter around outback NSW, the pensions office finally had enough and struck him off the list. By this stage he is in Melbourne and had at various times accommodation at 69 Fitzroy St and 114 Cardigan St, Carlton. On 17 July, 1918, Walter had a letter from Pensions informing him that his appeal against the rejection of a war pension was turned down because he had failed to turn up for appointments for medical examinations.

In 1939 Australia was recruiting again and Walter Edward, now a single 44-year-old cook presented himself for service. His address at he time was 122 Thornbury St, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane and his next of kin was listed as Kathleen Blacklock of Redfern Police Station. He attested at Brisbane, No.Q164769, was declared Class II fit with bullet wounds to the knee and shin. He was discharged on 17 October 1939 as unlikely to make an efficient soldier.
Walter died at Nambour, Queensland on 18 December, 1961.

• connection. ¹⁰⁶⁰ Daniel Folmer's connection to me is as follows:
Daniel Folmer . . .
His grandparents were . . .
Norman Sparre (c1900) who married Olive Stores (1904)
Her father was Walter Stores (1870)
His father was Thomas Stores (1836)
His father was Edward Stores (1802) who married Sarah Parkes (1809) father was John Parkes (1767) & he also had Thomas the Sprig of Myrtle Parkes (1824)
He had George Parkes (1857)
He had Sarah Parkes (1894) who married William Grace (1892)
His father was Edward Grace (1841) & he also had Albert Grace (1875) who married Mary Davies (1883)
Her father was Joseph Davies (1852) & he also had G. A. Davies (1894)
He had Colin Davies (1925)
He had me Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Walter married Mary Jane Cahill in 1895.⁶⁹² (Mary Jane Cahill was born on 24 May 1871 in Dry Plain, Adaminaby, NSW Australia and died in 1934 in Cooma, NSW Australia ⁶⁹².)