Lyle’s War 1915 – 1917

This thesis examines the war of University of Melbourne medical student, Walter Horace Carlyle (Lyle) Buntine.  Buntine  joined the AIF in mid-1915, but in England later transferred to a British Army regiment and then the Royal Flying Corps.  Posted to the Western front during the early months of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 with the RFC’s 11 Squadron,  he engaged in many “dog-fights,” was shot down numerous times, was severely wounded, won the Military Cross and was personally decorated by the King. He was killed in mid-1917 in an air crash in Scotland.  His substantial correspondence to his family during his war service bring the unique insights of a young ‘Australian-Briton’ who sees his duty is to serve the Empire in its greatest hour of need.