World War One

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Centenary of the end of World War One

Over four and a half years the North Central Review published profiles and lists of men and women from the southern part of the Mitchell Shire who volunteered to serve overseas during World War One, as a way of remembering their service 100 years later. These profiles were prepared by a project team comprising members of the Broadford Historical Society, the Kilmore Historical Society, the Upper Plenty Community group, the Wallan Commemorative Committee and the Wandong History Group. Additional information was generously provided by members of our local community. From July 2014 to November 2018 the North Central Review published 308 profiles.

Our World War One volunteers are recognised by having their names inscribed on the various district Honour Rolls and War Memorials. Many names were not included. Some volunteers may have had their names inscribed on other memorials and honour rolls. Details about most men and women who enlisted can be found on the websites of the National Archives of Australia, the Australian War Memorial, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and various websites created to recognise the Centenary of World War One.

Readers may be interested to know that the recently published lists indicate that 709 local men and women enlisted. They all had a pre-war connection to the southern part of the Mitchel Shire. Of those who served overseas 152 did not return. Due to reasons such as spelling errors, false names, working for the Salvation Army and the Australian Red Cross, enlisting in the forces of allied countries, there are 82 names listed on local honour rolls who could not be identified by the project team.

The breakup by service is army 694, navy six, flying corps five, and eight nurses. One soldier joined the British army and one joined the New Zealand army. As to bravery awards, two were awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Conduct Medal three, Military Cross thirteen, Military Medal thirteen, and one Croix de Guerre. Two soldiers were prisoners of war.

Below are the final lists for the southern part of the Mitchell Shire. If any reader considers someone should be included in these lists or can provide information please use the Contact Form or email team@oldplaces.com.au. Our apologises for any errors and omissions. 

Beveridge
Cummins, Patrick, SN 68780, 15th G S Reinforcements P
Hatty, David Samuel, SN 279, 4th Light Horse Reg
Hatty, Thomas Alfred, SN 5607, 3rd Division Train
McBain, Donald Binning, SN 6614, 4th Field Artillery Brigade P
McInroy, Charles Boundy, SN 1990, 56th Batt

Wallan and District
Allison, Arthur William, SN 6253, Royal Army Service Corps P
Anderson, Albert Joseph, SN 2108, 21st Batt P
Anderson, Frederick James, SN 5889, 2nd Division Signals Company P
Anderson. William John, SN 737, 6th Machine Gun Company P
Ash, Stanley Roy, SN 1242, 38th Batt, KIA P
Baker, James Arthur, SN 3323, 8th Light Horse Reg P
Bourke, James Archibald, SN 885, 7th Batt, KIA P
Bowden, Leonard, SN 3408, 6th Field Ambulance P
Boyle, Thomas Edgar, SN 1666, 59th Batt P
Bracken, James, SN 3465, 14th Batt, SN 1335, Anzac Police Corps, KIA P
Brennan, Joseph Bernard, SN 15859, 5th Field Ambulance P
Brooks, Benjamin, SN2579, 23rd Batt, POW P
Brooks, William Henry, SN 64163, 15th Light Horse Reg P
Cadwallader, Claudine Estelle, Sister, Army Nursing Service P
Cahill, Thomas Emmanuel, SN 2586, 58th Batt P
Cameron, Duncan, SN 162, 3rd Pioneer Batt
Chapman, John, SN 2386, Depot
Chapman, William Victor James, SN 69, 2nd Field Ambulance P
Clements, Allan George Alexander, SN 593, 10th Machine Gun Company P
Crawley, Rupert Quinton, SN 68779, 15th G S Reinforcements P
Cummins, Bryan Anthony, SN 5994, 7th Batt P
Cummins, John Joseph, SN 1624, 3rd Pioneer Batt P
Cummins, Patrick Thomas, SN 16834, 37th Batt
Cummins, William Joseph, MM, SN 5993, 7th Batt P
Currie, John Edward, SN 3077, 5th Machine Gun Batt
Darlington, Archibald Edward, SN 4781, Depot
Darlington, George Sydney, SN 834, 31st Batt
Dunlop, John Sydney, SN 2136, 39th Batt
Fairbairn, George Hickman, SN 52, 14th Batt P
Fairbairn, James Greer Gould, SN 2176, Imperial Camel Corps, KIA P
Fairbairn, Robert Murrell, SN 3047, 58th Batt P
Foster, Norman Thomas, SN 2087, 44th Batt
Greaves, Norman Leslie, MM, SN 2642, 24th Batt P
Groves, Arthur Anthony SN 1960, 13th Light Horse Reg P
Groves, Henry Ernest, SN 4650, 58th Batt, KIA P
Hadfield, William John, SN 15409, 3rd Light Horse Reg P
Hare, Gerald Patrick, SN 9345, 4th Field Artillery Brigade
Hargrave, Walter Mannix, Garrison Artillery, DOS P
Harrison, Edward Andrew, SN 7791, 2nd Tunnelling Company
Hawke, Albert Thomas, Depot
Hayward, George Walter, SN 898, 55th Siege Artillery Battery P
Heywood, Charles William, DCM, SN 32, 4th Light Horse Reg P
Holmes, Alexander Josiah, SN 1202, 37th Batt P
Holmes, David Cuthbert, SN 1204, 37th Batt P
Holmes, Henry Herbert, SN 1203, 37th Batt P
Holmes, Sydney Turnbull, SN 1201, 37th Batt P
Holt, Ewart Gladstone, SN 2429, 57th Batt P
Holt, Norman Richard, SN1073, 21st Batt, KIA P
Inglis, James, SN 3850, 23rd Batt P
Jinnette, Percy Leonard, SN 3172, 58th Batt P
Jones, Albert Ernest, SN 2932, 37th Batt
Lambie, Thomas Stanley, SN 1028, 4th Light Horse Brigade P
Lewis, Henry, SN 3842, 8th Batt, KIA P
Lewis, James Marquis, SN 1083, 9th Light Horse Reg P
Lewis, John Charles, MM, SN 1228, 38th Batt P
McBain, John Sween, Depot P
McCarthy, David Felix, SN 2688, 58th Batt P
McDonald, James, SN 8053, 6th Field Artillery Brigade P
McKendrick, William John, SN 81271, Depot
Mason, Alfred John, SN 110, 3rd Pioneer Batt P
Missen, Leonard Knighton, SN 5862, 1st Signal Squadron P
Morley, Edwin Joseph, SN 3190, 60th Batt, KIA P
Munro, Hugh Innes, SN 2730, 58th Batt P
Munro, William Arthur, SN 2726, 58th Batt, KIA P
Neelands, Samuel Barton, SN 3600, 4th Pioneer Batt
Noonan, Morris William, Lieut, 58th Batt
Nurse, Edwin Scott, Midshipman, Royal Australian Navy P
Nurse, Henry Scott, Lieut, 8th Field Artillery Brigade P
Olsson, Albert Edward, SN 6546, 5th Field Company Engineers
Olsson, William Frederick, SN 2395, 1st Pioneer Batt
Patton, James Russell, SN 3118, 7th Batt
Quirk. Andrew, SN 2749, 24th Batt, KIA P
Randell, Richard Thomas, SN 1456, 8th Light Horse Reg, KIA P
Roach, David, SN 2247, 53rd Batt, KIA
Robertson, John, SN 7566, 6th Batt
Rodda, Arnold Edward, Depot, DOS P
Rodda, Benjamin Patrick, SN1604, 31st Batt, KIA P
Rowe. Frederick, SN 5088, 22nd Batt, KIA P
Smith, Albert, SN 3456, 1st Pioneer BattP
Smith, Christopher John, SN 1347, 24th Batt P
Smith, Leslie Walter, SN 5452, 4th Batt, KIA P
Smith, William Robert, SN 1147, 24th Batt P
Stanley, Rupert, SN 2400, 37th Batt
Stockdale, Bryan, SN 1439, 10th Light Horse Reg P
Stockdale, Peregrine Joseph, SN, 2934, 2nd FieldArtillery Brigade P
Stockdale, William Clarence, SN 2660, 3rd Pioneer Batt P
Stockdale, William Hallett, SN 990, 6th Batt, KIA P
Stute, William Charles James, SN 2567, 46th Batt, KIA
Taylor, Murdoch Dive, Depot P
Whelpton, Frederick David, Lieut, 59th Batt P
Wilcock, Ernest Leslie, MC, Lieut, 5th Batt P
Williams, Alfred Ernest, SN 2839, 23rd Batt P
Wilson, William Styles, SN 5653 & 3410, Depot

Abbreviations
Batt – Battalion
Depot – is an indication the person either failed a medical examination or the war had ended before being allocated to a Battalion with a service number. In some Depot cases, a service number was allocated.
DOS – died on service
KIA – killed in action
P – Profile published in the North Central Review
Reg – Regiment
SN – the service number allocated to a soldier of a particular unit.

Wallan unidentified
Easton, A – Shire list
Elliott, James – Wallan School – KIA
Elliott, Leslie – Wallan School
Hare, William – Wallan School
Lee, Rae – Wallan School
McLeod, R A (Roy) – Wallan School & Pres Church

Mills G – Memorial

Mason, W – Shire list
Murphy, Sydney – Wallan School
Ryan, V – Two memorials, Shire list
Swan, F – Memorial
Vincent, J – Shire list

There is a need to appreciate how these lists were compiled just after WWI. Churches and schools would ask their communities for the names of volunteers for WWI service. In some cases relatives would nominate a volunteer who had no connection to Wallan. The pressure was on the leaders “appointed” to compile their church or school lists; time wise and more on the list the better. There would have been no checking with the army. Just depending upon the person nominating someone to provide details. This also meant that a volunteer’s name could appear on more than one roll or memorial. In addition to the school and church lists which would result in wooden honour boards, leaders of a community would form a committee to compile a community list for a war memorial.

Shire Councils were not usually directly involved in the fund raising or the design and building of a war memorial. If they were involved it was probably to give approval as to the site being on Council land, eg a park. The then newly established Repatriation Department was not involved. 

Note the number of unidentified names that are on the Wallan School Honour Roll. This seems to indicate that in the years before World War One some families may have come to Wallan and district for work purposes and their children went to school in Wallan, for example, a school teacher, a railway worker, a church minister. Then the worker in the family was posted to another locality and the family moved away from Wallan.  But the community later were aware that someone from such families served in World War One, and their name was recorded on a WWI Roll.

Perhaps the above situation related to James Elliott. You would think that finding a soldier who was killed in action would be a simple process. Check for James Elliott on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site – no result. Check the Australian War Memorial website – 77 results, nothing relevant. Check the National Archives of Australia website – 118 results, nothing relevant. Searched old newspapers online (Trove) – nothing relevant. I noted that a Corporal James Elliott was killed in action in 1915. He was from Warracknabeal – no obvious links to Wallan and District.  Also checked for a James Elliot – nothing relevant.

So did this Warracknabeal family live in Wallan just before WWI?

Another example is Arthur William Allison, the first volunteer in the identified list above. His file, held by the National Archives of Australia, contains just four pages. They reveal that he tried to enlist in Sydney, but because he was a British subject who was on the reserve list of the British Army, Arthur was told to return to the UK, which he did and fought on the Western Front. After the War he married and they settled in Sydney. There is no evidence that he ever came to Wallan. But there were people named Allison in the Wallan district at that time and it is likely that at least one of them was a relative of Arthur, and put his name forward for recording on the Wallan Presbyterian Honour Roll.


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3Comments

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  1. 1
    Judy Kirkpatrick

    My grandfather was James Inglis 3850. Served in big wars. However on the cenotaph at Wallan his name is spelt ingles. How do we correct this?

    • 2
      Grahame Thom

      Hi Judy Your error is probably not the only one. It is not easy to arrange and the problem is that such changes cost money. This memorial is probably under the management of the Kilmore and Wallan RSL, based in Kilmore Memorial Hall.

    • 3
      Grahame Thom

      Hi Judy

      I had a close look at the Wallan War Memorial today and the four faces are marble and the names are
      inscribed into the marble then highlighted with gold lettering. This means it is highly unlikely any changes will be made soon as it would be expensive. Interestingly there are four more spelling errors – Grahame

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