Remembering a Veteran: Chaplain Dexter and the Silver Wattle of Gallipoli

Chaplain Dexter at Gallipoli

By James Patton

Senior Chaplain (hon. Lieut. Col.) Walter Ernest Dexter, DSO, MC, DCM, MiD (1873–1950) was born at Birkenhead, England. The  youngest son of a shipwright, he too seemed destined for the sea. He was indentured at 14 for five years at wages of "nothing plus twelve shillings for washing" on the barque Buckingham. After a year he jumped ship in New York and eked out an existence doing odd jobs, until  he was able to ship out aboard his eldest brother’s vessel in 1890.

All told, he made at least  37 voyages, under both sail and steam. He started as "boy," rose through the ranks, ending in March 1899, when he got his master's certificate. In 1900  he was the first mate of the Akbar, based at Mauritius.

When the Second Boer War was heating up in 1899, a former tea planter from Assam, the Scottish-born Dugald M. Lumsden CB (1851–1915), recruited a mounted unit in Bengal for Imperial Service. Well over 1,000 men volunteered, but Lumsden was choosy—he only wanted men between 25 and 40 years of age, and he preferred them to be unmarried. The unit was called Lumsden's Horse, with two companies and a machine gun section, filled with tea planters or men from the mercantile or maritime trades. Dexter was among the latter, assigned to 4 section of B Company. 

Lumsden's Horse deployed to South Africa in March 1900, and campaigned there for over a year. Two incidents involving Dexter stand out. First, Lumsden's Horse was in the vanguard of the advance on Elandsfontein, a Boer railway center. It was discovered that the Boers were using the telegraph to report British positions and perhaps direct artillery fire. Private Dexter rode forward under heavy fire, climbed a telegraph pole and cut the wires. Second, during the action at Karee, when a small party including Dexter were cut off, they had to fight their way out, suffering 50 percent casualties. Private Dexter was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) at the end of the unit's tour of duty. He also received the Queen’s South Africa Medal with three clasps.

Trooper Dexter During the Boer War

After his discharge he returned to the sea. He became master of the Afghan, carrying Moslem pilgrims to Mecca, then trading in the off-season. For manning a rescue boat from the Afghan at the wreck of the Taher off Mauritius in March 1901, he was commended by the Royal Humane Society. 

He later said that he began to feel "a driving force … certainly not myself." He studied the Biblical languages and entered Durham University in 1906, intending to prepare for the ministry. He graduated with an M.A. and received his  L.Th. in 1908, and was ordained in the Church of England. Given his non-traditional background, his first parish assignment was equally non-traditional, going to the new coal-mining camp at Wonthaggi in Victoria, Australia. For two years his vicarage was a tent, but he earned a reassignment to St. Barnabas in South Melbourne. 

Enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on the outbreak of World War I, Dexter was one of twelve chaplains whose appointments dated from 8 September 1914. His parishioners  presented him with a silver traveling communion kit, (which today is in the  collections of the Australian War Museum, Canberra). He sailed on HMAT Orvieto in the first convoy to Egypt. At the beginning of the Dardanelles Campaign, he was assigned to hospital ship duty, but on 17 May 1915 he was landed at ANZAC on Gallipoli. Serving as acting senior chaplain of the 2nd Brigade, he shared the lives and dangers of the men, not only helping them spiritually but practically too,  as he was an effective ‘scrounger’, earning the nickname 'The Pinching Padre'. He also performed minor medical tasks and was known to have extracted teeth on at least one occasion. 'He was as good as a doctor', wrote a sergeant.

Of course, there were the burials to attend to. He often shared his feelings about them with his diary. This quote is taken from his entry on 10 August 1915, after the Battle of Lone Pine:

Australian Dead at Lone Pine

In the Lone Pine the moving of the dead goes steadily on. All hope of getting them out for burial is given up and they are being dragged into saps and recesses, which will be filled up. The bottom of the trench is fairly clear, you have not to stand on any as you walk along and the bottom of the trench is not springy, nor do gurgling sounds come from under your feet as you walk on something soft. The men are feeling worn out but are sticking it like Britons. The stench you get used to after a bit unless a body is moved. In all this the men eat, drink and try to sleep. Smoking is their salvation and a drop of rum works wonders … Had a funeral at 6 p.m. One is obsessed with dead men and burials and I am beginning to dream of them. I suppose it is because I am so tired.

He took a close interest in the burial sites on the Gallipoli battlefield. He organized work parties to build a low rock wall around part of the cemetery at Shrapnel Valley to protect it from floods. He also obtained paint and other materials to neaten the appearance of the graves. Later, he was put in charge of carefully surveying the cemeteries. Up to his departure on17 December 1915, he supervised the workers who drew up plans of the major cemeteries: Shrapnel Valley, Ari Burnu, the Beach, Brown's Dip, and Shell Green. Some of the smaller cemeteries were also surveyed, such as at Plugge's Plateau and Victoria Gully. Before their evacuation, his team had completed the job. He had kept the burial records up to date, and had also taken the bearings of many isolated graves, so that accurate and useful records would exist should the Australians ever return to Gallipoli. 

He also left behind a memento: "I went up the gullies and through the cemeteries, scattering Silver Wattle seed. If we have to leave here, I intend that a bit of Australia shall be here. I soaked the seed for about 20 hours, and they seem to be well and thriving."

Silver Wattle at Johnston's Jolly Cemetery, Gallipoli

Silver wattle, also called mimosa or Wednesday weed (Acacia dealbata), is a species of erect, bushy shrub or spreading tree. It is endemic in New South Wales and Victoria states. It produces bright yellow flowers throughout the antipodean summer, and the flower has been used as a symbol of Australia, even featured on the coat of arms, (along with a kangaroo and an emu). It grows well on sloping ground, like the sides of gullies or ravines, and Gallipoli has a lot of that terrain. It is now found in many locales with a Mediterranean clime, including California, where  it is classified as an invasive weed.

He was one of two chaplains at Gallipoli awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and was also Mentioned in Despatches. 

Chaplain Dexter (L) on the Western Front

After a stop in Egypt, he went to France in April 1916. From Pozières in July to the AIF's battles in August 1918, with only  a short break at AIF Headquarters in London, he tended to the troops' welfare as a senior chaplain, as well as a compassionate friend. One example of the latter is given by C.E.W. Bean, the official war historian: 

"Chaplain Dexter, with support from the Australian Comforts Fund, established at the corner of Bécourt Wood a coffee stall which henceforth became a cherished institution on the edge of every Australian battlefield."

In 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for his work on the battlefield at Passchendaele, thus becoming the AIF’s most decorated chaplain.  

After the war, he served with the AIF demobilization staff in London, a difficult job as the repatriation process was slow due to a lack of ships. He returned to Melbourne in 1920, tried farming on a soldier’s grant, then returned to the church in 1924. Pastoral duties, civic affairs, further  education (he earned a Dip. Ed.), teaching, writing and war commemoration services then occupied his life. At some point he struck up a dialog with the British Poet Laureate (1930–67), John Masefield (1868–1967), who also went to sea as a boy, and who wrote a book about Gallipoli that was published in 1916. It is said that, on 11 November 1934, Masefield visited Dexter at his parish in Lara, near Melbourne, where Masefield read a minor work entitled  "For the dead at Gallipoli" for the first time. It is also said that, in 1938 Masefield helped Dexter get his autobiographical work covering his life at sea published, entitled Rope-Yarns, Marline-Spikes and Tar. If there were to be further works covering his military life, they were never forthcoming.  

He died on 31 August 1950, survived by his second wife, Dora, whom he had married in 1908, their five sons (all of whom served in World War II) and one daughter. "The press has told us of his amazing career, his distinctions, his activities and his varied ministry," wrote a wartime chaplain colleague who had risen to be the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne; "he was a man of great gifts."

Sources:  The Anzac Portal; The Australian Boer War Memorial; Australian Dictionary of Biography