Lieutenant-Colonel “Swazi” Waller
1st Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment

He was gifted with extreme personal bravery, which proved a great inspiration to all the battalion. To see him walking about, as he frequently did, amongst the leading troops and forward positions, completely indifferent to the heaviest enemy fire, was a great morale-boost to all. In addition, whatever the circumstances and however great the demands of the situation, he was always carefully shaved and immaculately turned out.

(Lt. Eddie Jones quoted in Tony Colvin, The Noise of Battle, 440)

Born on 28 August 1909 in British India, William Augustine Waller enlisted with the Worchester Regiment before being admitted to Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding) in 1930 and served with the 2nd Battalion in India and fought on the North West Frontier. His nickname came from an Indian Army tune “Swazi wallah.” After seven years overseas, Waller returned to England in 1939 and joined the 1st Battalion as a company commander. He was badly wounded during the evacuation from Dunkirk and earned the Military Cross for “utter disregard for danger.”

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