Walter Hague

Walter Constantine Haager (sometimes Hague, Hagar, not to be confused with the Hagge family) was born in 1881 at Appin, New South Wales, the son of Constantinus and Elizabeth Haager.

He served in the Australian Imperial Force (No. 1778), 4th Reinforcements/9th Infantry Battalion, later the 49th Battalion and the 4th Pioneer Battalion. He served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. In August of 1916 he was wounded by a shell and evacuated to England, later returning to Australia.

He married Clarence Emmiline Robin in 1927 at Tenterfield, they had one son.

In 1922, Walter Haager was a partner in a gold mining claim on the Talgai goldfields. With Mark Victor Smitten, he registered a 400 by 400 square foot claim, known as “Daddy’s Tip”.

Haager was an opal miner, residing at Lightning Ridge in the early 1930s. He worked with the Graham brothers at New Town Hill, where the brothers had some success.

Haager was among the founders of the first R.S.L. branch at Lightning Ridge, serving as Secretary alongside Joe Willis (Chairman) and Harold Frazer (Vice Chairman).

Walter Haager died at Warwick, Queensland, on 12 December 1957, aged 76, and was buried there.

• Walter Haager @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: ‘Life in Gallipoli’, Warwick Examiner and Times, 27 September 1915, p. 4; ‘Mining Matter’, Warwick Daily News, 13 October 1922, p. 4; The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 71, 111; First World War Embarkation Roll, Australian War Memorial.