Private Roy Walton Underwood, 32nd Battalion, AIF
Australian War MemorialRoy Underwood was born in Mt Gambier, South Australia, on 2 January 1893. He was one of 13 children born to John and Emily Underwood, 12 of whom survived infancy. Roy went to the local public school and Mt Gambier High School. The family were well known in the area; his father was a local councillor and member of the Militia, and ran a boot and shoe store.
In 1908, the Underwood family moved to Adelaide and settled in the suburb of St Peters. Roy worked as a clerk for the Cowell brothers in Norwood and later for department store, Harris Scarfe. The family had been closely involved in the Baptist church at Mt Gambier and continued this in Adelaide. Several of Roy’s brothers worked with the church and at least one became an overseas missionary. Roy taught Sunday School at the Stepney Baptist Church.
Roy Underwood enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in July 1915 and was posted to the newly raised 32nd Battalion. He had a period of training before being sent to Egypt and from there to France.
In July 1916, the 32nd Battalion participated in the disastrous attack at Fromelles where it suffered extremely heavy casualties. Nearly three-quarters of its men were killed or wounded.
Private Underwood was one of the lucky ones those who survived. He wrote home to say he had had several narrow escapes, with bullet holes put through his uniform and even one of his boots.
The 32nd Battalion would not participate in a major offensive for the rest of the year, although it did hold the front line at times.
In March 1917, it was in the front line near Trônes Wood, where the battalion sent working parties to repair trenches and patrols into no man’s land on a regular basis.
During this period, Private Underwood was on duty as a stretcher-bearer. On 5 March, the battalion came under heavy shell-fire on occasion which killed six men.
One of them was Private Roy Underwood.
He was 24 years old.
Underwood’s body was later recovered and he is now buried in the Bancourt Military Cemetery in France. His headstone reads: “Loved son of J.I.U. and E.U. of Adelaide, late of Mt Gambier”.
His name is listed on the St Peters Heroes War Memorial and the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, among more than 60,000 Australians who died during the First World War.
Dr Meleah Hampton, Historian, Military History Section
- Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2133649
