Ambrose was 6' tall, weighed 12 stone 7 lbs and was 39 years old when he signed his attestation papers on 25 September 1916 at Enoggera in Queensland, although his file says his service dated from 2 February 1916. He had been a labourer in Cloncurry, Queensland, and his enlistment form gave his occupation as "miner". He was C of E, had blue eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion.
Prior to the war he seems to have been living in the Goldfields district of Western Australia, an area he returned to after the war, before his sojourn at Cloncurry. His career before and after the war was in the mining industry, a background which probably explains his military career being in tunnelling. In 1911 he and two partners served notice of taking out a gold mining lease at Gold Valley, near Southern Cross in WA (The Southern Cross Times 8 Feb 1911). Pre-war he appears to have twice been fined for mistreating a horse that he was working (Kalgoorlie Western Argus 16 October 1906 - offence at Leonora; The Daily News 4 March 1896 - offence near Coolgardie); The Daily News report deplores the "cruelty to animals which is so rampant on the fields".
He embarked for Europe from Melbourne on 25 October 1916 aboard the Ulysses, disembarking at Plymouth on 28 December 1916. On 14 April 1917 he departed Folkestone for France, marching into Etaples on 15 April 1917. On 3 May 1917 he was transferred to England, having been classed as "PB" (it's not clear what that means). On 17 May he marched out to Weymouth for embarkation to Australia, and sailed on 23 May 1917 aboard the Ayrshire for home service, with "chronic synovitis" of the right knee. He was discharged on 28 August 1917.
In subsequent years, the electoral rolls indicate that he lived in the Kalgoorlie electorate at various places, including Kathleen Valley, and was described as a prospector or labourer. In the 1950's he was in the Mount Leonora sub-district of that electorate.
On 13 March 1936 The West Australian reported that Walter Good was the vendor of a "very encouraging" lease "with good prospects" in the Kathleen Valley. The Daily News on 27 June 1922 reported that a Walter Good (aged 44, the same age as the subject of this article) had a "miraculous escape from death" when run over by a tram on the Causeway in Perth.
On 9 March 1950 The West Australian published a news item about Mr Walter Good, a 72 year old patient at the Leonora Hospital, who disappeared from the hospital. After 2 days police and trackers found him 35 miles away in the bush "apparently suffering no ill effects from his hike". No mean feat at that time of the year in that terrain, particularly for someone of his age.
Apparently unmarried, he died in June 1954 and was buried on 30 June 1954 at Karakatta Cemetery, Perth.
His next of kin was his sister, Elizabeth Grant, resident at 99 Hotham St, East Melbourne in 1916, with her husband Archibald Grant, and his brother William Grant, both described as "manufacturers". Achibald Grant died in 1919, described as a lift attendant.
National Archives of Australia file on W A Good
Various newspapers, as cited