Family photos capture a moment in time….

Family photos such as this one of Willliam Salter, my great great Uncle, capture a moment in time. Photographs from this era of stoic men in uniform rarely capture the true experience of war.

William enlisted in the AIF on 4/4/1916, two years after the official declaration of war. Perhaps it was his age, he was 43 years old when war was declared, or maybe it was because he had a family of 6 to provide for, that made him wait while thousands of other men were enlisting. William was a miner, a true ‘digger’ and it was his experience that made him a valuable recruit for the 2nd Tunnelling Company of the Australian Imperial Force.

Sapper Salter would have been working on tunnels which were dug under the German front line. This strategy became an important facet of the war to break the stalemate of trench warfare.

William survived a ‘cave-in’ while at the Western Front in July 1917. In his letter to home he tells his family, ‘…the Germans blowed us in. I was 6 hours before they got me out. The doctor said very few could have stood it, what I went through’. It was fellow soldiers of his unit which dug him out – his mates. Perhaps his previous experience in the mines on the gold fields of Western Australia also served him in good stead.

William was medically discharged on 14/1/1918 – his health was never the same. He took up farming to make ends meet, but he was always a miner first, never a farmer. As many returned soldiers found, life post-war was a struggle. He passed away, at the relatively young age of 66.

Photograph 1 : William Salter (right) pre World War I, date unknown
Photograph 2: Sapper Salter c.1917