Early Life and World War I
Born on 4 April 1900 in Benalla, Victoria, Hector MacDonald Laws Waller was the son of William Frederick Waller, a grocer, and his wife Helen Waller (née Duncan). Hec Waller was named in honour of General Hector MacDonald, hero of the Boer War, and a forebear called Laws who was an admiral and a contemporary of Nelson. The youngest of ten children, of whom eight survived infancy, he attended Benalla Higher Elementary School.
Waller entered the Royal Australian Naval College (RANC) as a cadet midshipman on 31 December 1913, aged thirteen. He gained recognition as a rugby player and became cadet captain. In 1917, his final year at the college, he was raised to chief cadet captain and won the King's Medal, awarded for "gentlemanly bearing, character, good influence among his fellows and officer-like qualities". Promoted to midshipman on 1 January 1918, he was posted to Britain where, in April, he was appointed to serve in the Royal Navy's (RN) Grand Fleet with the dreadnought HMS Agincourt. The ship did not see combat while he was on board, however.
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