by
Austlit & Lucy London
ed
by D.P.G. Sheridan
Arthur
Geoffrey Nelson Wall was born on the 3rd of March, 1897 in Liscard, England, and his birth was registered
nearly 4 months later in June 1897. He was the son of Arthur E. Wall, formerly of Bromley, Kent
and his wife Mary. His primary education was at the Sea Bank Road High School. When
his
father was appointed manager of the Australasian branch of the London and
Lancashire Fire Insurance Company, Geoffrey and his family moved to Australia
then in
1907,
arriving in Melbourne when Geoffrey was ten years of age.
He
received his main education at Wesley College, Melbourne, before entering
Queens College at Melbourne University in 1916. An attempt to enlist at the
outbreak of the First World War failed due to his slight build, but after a
course of physical culture training he sailed for England in November 1916,
determined to join the Royal Flying Corps. He trained at No 7 Training School in
Netheravon, Wiltshire, and further trained at Denham and Oxford becoming a flight
instructor in June 1917. He died with a student two months later on the 6th August, 1917, when their aeroplane crashed at
the Netheravon airfield in Bristol.
An early
interest in mechanics explained Wall's aptitude as an airman, but he also
showed promise as a poet. While at school and university he had taken to
writing verse, publishing many in Wesley College's school magazine, The Lion.
As a tribute to his skill and character, these were collected as Songs of an
Airman in October 1917. A companion volume, Letters of an Airman,
was published the following year, containing several poems contained in his
correspondence.
Strictly speaking, Geoffrey Wall is not actually an Australian Great War poet, however, we may include him in as much as his formative years of 10 to 17 were spent in Australia. He tried to join the 1st A.I.F., but couldn't because of his slight physique, however, if he had waited and tried enlisting later, he very likely would have got in, as the standards dropped considerably in later years due to the higher need for volunteers.
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