Memory of Walter Spencer, a Light Horseman in WWI, kept alive through a family tale

FOR Ella and Heath Kenny, their great-great-grandfather’s battle legacy lies at the statue of the Boer War.

Walter Spencer's(Light Horseman) great great grandchildren Heath, 7yrs, and Ella, 10yrs in front of Light brigade statue in memory of their great great grandfather. They are also holding a photo of him. Picture Dylan Coker

FOR Ella and Heath Kenny, their great-great-grandfather’s battle legacy lies at the statue of the Boer War.

Walter Spencer was born in Walkerville in 1877 and grew up by the beach in Semaphore.

He was one of the first Adelaide hairdressers to specialise in a lady’s haircut but at the age of 40, enlisted in the First World War.

Embarking from Sydney in 1918, Mr Spencer served in Egypt as a Light Horseman in the 3rd Regiment.

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He returned to Australia on May 5, 1919, and was honoured with a British war medal.

Walter Spencer had four children. One son, Jack and three daughters Pat, Valma and Eileen.

But it Eileen and Valma who knew how to tell a good tale, keeping their father’s service alive.

Although the statue was erected in 1904, Eileen Eve and her sister Valma Goreham told their children that the bronzed horseman was Mr Spencer.

Sharing the story from one generation to the next, Ashleigh Kenny, Mr Spencer’s great granddaughter, has passed on details of the story to her children Ella, 10 and Heath, seven.

Mrs Kenny, 37, said the statue — a memorial to the Light Brigade who served in the second Boer War — was a physical reminder of what their ancestors had sacrificed for them.

“To be able to say that it was the kids’ great great grandfather who fought in the light brigade, they see the statue and know the family story and their connection to WWI,” Ms Kenny said.

“Ella and Heath now have a better understanding and it’s becoming more real to them than it has been in the past.”

On Anzac Day, Ms Kenny said she hopes to attend the memorial at the Light Horse Memorial with her children and their grandmother Carol, Mr Spencer’s granddaughter.

“For them to attend their first dawn service on the commemoration of Anzac Day will be pretty special,” she said.

Originally published as Memory of Walter Spencer, a Light Horseman in WWI, kept alive through a family tale