2639 Corporal Walter Douglas Paine, 28, a mercer had many connections with Auburn. He attended Auburn North Public School and, like five other Auburn Memorial men from Auburn North, went on to do post-primary courses at Auburn Public School. Walter was a member of the St Philip’s Anglican Church Auburn and the Auburn Lodge of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows. When Walter enlisted on 22 June 1916, he nominated his widowed mother at 78 Station Road Auburn as his next-of-kin. Paine’s date of embarkation and name of the ship was not recorded in his service file but it is recorded he joined the Anzac forces on Gallipoli on 6 November 1915, just a month before the evacuation. Back in Egypt, the Anzac forces were reorganised and Paine was allocated to the 1st Battalion First Australian Division. Arriving in Marseilles, France on 28 March 1916, Paine was killed in action on 25 July 1916, the early days of the Australian attack at Pozieres. His body was never found and his name is inscribed on the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. Helen Paine received her son’s medals and she was awarded a pension of one pound per fortnight as she was dependent on Walter. Her other son had left home and was a teacher at Rozelle Public School.