Daniel Reynaud

SAILOR, SOLDIER, VICAR, FARMER

The Improbable Life of Anzac Chaplain Walter Dexter

December 1915: a paunchy middle aged man walked the rugged ridges and gullies above Anzac Cove where, over the previous eight months, these hills and valleys had rung with rifle shots and shellfire, and the war cries and wounded shrieks of Turkish and British Empire soldiers. The man was dressed in the uniform of a captain in the Australian Imperial Force, but he was no fighting soldier. Instead, he wore the badges and dog-collar of a non-combatant military chaplain. As he went, he scattered Australian wattle seeds around the graves of hundreds of soldiers who had died in the heroic but misguided campaign, hoping to shade the dead under the canopy of their native trees. He had personally buried many of the men and put up the simple white wooden crosses – their names and unit painted on them in black.

Walter Dexter was in the early stages of his fourth career. His complexion, gait, medal ribbons and dog-collar were evidence of his having already been a sailor, soldier and parish priest, and although only in his early 40s, he had more career changes ahead of him. By the end of this war, further bravery awards would mark him out as Australia’s most decorated chaplain, while his service from the beginning to the very end of the conflict made his record unique among Australian chaplains.