played at the age of only 13 years. By the age of 16, Walter was regularly making breaks of over 1,000 during practice at the London Tavern, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, where Fred Lindrum II was running a three-table billiard parlour. By 1921 Walter Lindrum was defeating his older brother, Frederick III, then the Australian Billiards Champion. Walter refused to play his brother for the title. Family Walter married Rose Coates in 1929 in Sydney. She was dying at this time and died soon after. His second marriage was to Alicia Hoskin on 9 April 1933 in London. Known as Sue, Walter and his wife toured the world for many years. Alicia and Walter were divorced in 1955. Walter married a third time in July 1956, to Beryl Elaine, née Carr, who survived him. Billiards champion During the mid-1920s Walter Lindrum's standard of play was without effective competition in Australia, with many players refusing to play against him. As a result, exhibition matches were often organised, especially with New Zealand Billiard Champion Clark McConachy. Lindrum published his instructional book, Billiards, in 1930 [first printed date in book]. It was revised and reprinted in 1940 as Billiards and Snooker, "proceeds from the sale going to the Lindrum War Drive", his World War II fundraising effort, in later printings. It was not until 1929 that Willie Smith, World Champion in 1920 and 1923, and one of the best English billiards players of the time, visited Australia and played three fairly even matches against Lindrum. With both players being one match up, Lindrum was forced to abandon the third game midway through, upon the death of his wife due to heart failure. While technically the match was a forfeit, Smith refused to accept the trophy and insisted it be awarded to Lindrum. On 7 December 1929, Lindrum made a world record break of 3,262. The cue was endorsed with an engraved ivory plate 'The World's Record Break Cue. 3262 Dec.7th 1929. Walter Lindrum, Australia'. It came into the collection of Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia, and after Menzies' death was presented to the Commonwealth Club in Canberra in 1965. Smith, McConachy and Lindrum departed Australia in September 1929 for a tour of England. Between 1929 and 1933 Lindrum dominated the English billiards scene. With games usually being played to 24,000 points, he would often start conceding as many as 7000 points to his