Enlistment Address
Coonamble NSW
Service Number
2140
Unit
45th Battalion
Comment
Tooraweenah Kookaburras
Fate
RTA 11 April 1917
Information
Private David Peter Balderston was a 45 year old Labourer of Coonamble when he enlisted on 12 January 1916 with the Tooraweenah Kookaburra Recruitment March. He was described as 5’10” tall, 154lbs (70kgs), dark complexion, dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes with a scar on his right cheek. He was Presbyterian.
After training in Bathurst, he embarked for England on HMAT Wiltshire on 22 August, 1916 and arrived in Plymouth 13 October, 1916. He served with the 45th Battalion in the trenches and behind the lines in France at the Western Front through the winter. He was admitted to the hospital in Sutton Veny, England suffering from trench foot and rheumatism. He was invalided back to Sydney on the TS ‘Ayshire’ 11 April, 1917 and discharged medically unfit 15 August, 1917. He died in 1919 and is buried in the Tooraweenah Cemetery.
David was born in 1869 to Janet and Alexander Balderston. When he enlisted he stated his next of kin was his brother Samuel Archibald Balderston, a store keeper assistant at Garlings, Tooraweenah NSW. His parents were deceased by 1925, when Samuel signed a Statutory Declaration that the closest relative to David was the eldest brother, AJ Balderston of The Pines, Gulargambone, NSW.
David was eligible for the British War Medal and the Victory Medal He is commemorated on the Tooraweenah and Gilgandra Roll of Honor.