Alfred Brooks Wadham was the fifth of seven children born in Bridport, England to Joseph and Mary Wadh,am. He migrated to Australia in 1911 with his brother Frederick and their wives, settling in Mildura. He played several games for the Irymple team in 1914 before enlisting early in the war after his wife’s death, leaving his 2-year-old son in his brother’s care.
He fought at Gallipoli before contracting a serious case of Dysentry and was returned to England. In a double tragedy, he met with an accident on the train taking him to his mother’s funeral in London. He died after falling from the carriage platform. His commanding officer described him as a “good soldier and a steady man”.
The Midlothian Advertiser (4 February 1916) reported his death thus:
KILLED ON WAY TO FUNERAL.
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Private Alfred Brookes Wadham, of the Australian Infantry, who had obtained leave to attend his mother’s funeral in London, met with a shocking death by falling out of the compartment of the train, in which he was a passenger from Weymouth, in front of an approaching train just outside Wool (Dorset) L.S.W.R. station.
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His right leg was cut off, and his left hand and the back of the head crushed. Private Wadham, who was thirty-one years of age, enlisted on his wife’s death in Australia, fought at Gallipoli, and was invalided home. The jury at Wimborne returned a verdict of “Accidental death.”
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A tragic footnote to the story is the fate of his son, Alfred Harvey Brooks Wadham. Last seeing him at the age of 2, Private Wadham went to great pains to ensure that his son was looked after by his older brother and also made substantial provision for him in his will. Sadly Alfred Jr, a sergeant in the RAAF, was also killed accidentally, during WW2 when his Catalina disappeared off the northern Australian coast in 1944.
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