Author(s): Kathryn Spurling

Military

William Herbert’s life reflected that of an exceptional few, and of a nation. As a youthful member of the Australian Light Horse, he landed at Gallipoli before being evacuated back to Australia. Unwilling to accept defeat he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and piloted RE8 aircraft in dangerous operations over the Western Front. He succeeded as a grazier in the lands around Adaminaby. He survived countless battles during World War I but like so many of his fellow veterans he could not survive the battle to overcome the affect on a man’s psyche of war. William Valentine Herbert was born in Ocean Grove, Geelong, Victoria, on 28 July 1894 to Charles and Florence Herbert. Family prosperity enabled him to attend the prestigious Melbourne Trinity Grammar School. The sons of Australian gentlemen commonly assumed a working life as clerks or those who preferred to be free of office confines invariably took up positions on properties. Herbert was one for the wide- opened spaces and endless horizons of Australia. After twelve months study at Dookie Agricultural College, he worked as a jackaroo on the New South Wales, Cootamundra property, ‘Bongalong’. He was soon appointed overseer. Some 10,000 sheep were sent to the Coolemon Plains area in the moun- tainous Kosciuszko National Park. His supervising the Autumn mustering introduced him to a district with which he would have a lifelong love and to which he would return to live and to partake in his be- loved trout fishing. But this future was first interrupted by war and the challenge to survive.