Hector Dinning

Born in 1887, Hector W. Dinning was an Australian journalist and author best known for By-ways on Service: Notes from an Australian Journal, published in 1918. Library and book records describe the book as a collection of pen-portraits and sketches written in the Somme area during 1917, giving it the feeling of writing shaped by immediate experience rather than distant hindsight.

Contemporary accounts and later catalog records connect him closely with journalism as well as wartime writing. An obituary published in Brisbane in November 1941 identified him as Hector W. Dinning and noted his death at age 54. Surviving records also show that he later served as Queensland's State Publicity Censor.

Dinning is not widely remembered today, but his writing still stands out for its eyewitness quality. For listeners interested in personal, reflective accounts of World War I, his work preserves small moments, character sketches, and the everyday reality behind military history.