25Th April 2012
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25th April 2012 Commemorative booklet proudly presented by Michael McCormack MP Federal Member for Riverina IN HONOUR: The 17 local soldiers union jack’s anzac legacy endures who died in World War I are remembered at Union Jack. gallantry FROM ANZAC Cove at Gallipoli Youngsters bring and the bloody and muddy trenches purpose to ANZAC HENRY Charles Gaylard was of the Western Front to the swirling Day observances a fighting fit, strapping young desert sands or guerilla operations in because it is their lad when he enlisted with the back streets of Afghanistan, Australia’s future which has Australian Imperial Force and military personnel have earned a been secured by headed to The Great War in reputation for bravery, selflessness and mighty sacrifices 1916. made in campaigns perhaps above all, mateship. The 20-year-old Tumbarumba past. Our soldiers’ renown as courageous and carpenter/labourer sailed fierce fighters, considered as good as any Indeed, more than one war memorial has out of Sydney on HMAT by Allies and enemy alike, was and is inscribed the words: “When you go home, Ascanius with the 55th also held in the same high esteem as that tell them of us and say, ‘For your tomorrow, Infantry Battalion’s 7th of our combative strength in the air and we gave our today.’” Reinforcements with several on water. The ANZAC legend is also embodied in other Riverina boys. As we approach the centenary of those gallant members presently wearing Captured by the Germans Gallipoli, the ANZAC spirit burns as an Australian Defence Force uniform. during the Battle of brightly as ever. It is in their DNA. So too are the Lagnicourt, France, in April rosewood’s allegiance qualities of true grit, valour and a desire 1917, Private Gaylard was It is evident in the determination of Ex- to seek peace in our times. May they all interned at Hamelin and UNLIKE The Great War of Servicemen and Women who wear their return home safely from their important spent time in a number of 1914-18 when men fought medals with pride as they stoically march overseas deployments when their duty Prisoner of War camps before the battles and women who on 25 April each year. went to war served in medical is done. falling gravely ill. It shows in the adults who line the units, World War II was truly This ANZAC Day, let us especially Tragically, on 17 September streets and look on with admiration and a matter of “one in, all in”. remember the families of our fallen in 1918, with a truce less than deep respect as yesteryear’s warriors file the War in Afghanistan since 2002. Lest eight weeks away, Pte Gaylard Many rolls of honour across past. the countryside represent the we forget. succumbed to Spanish fever fact the 1939-45 war generally It is there for all to see in the faces and heart weakness in the involved anyone and everyone, of children, many too young to know German camp at Wahmbeck irrespective of gender. the true meaning of the occasion, and was buried in the village but who nevertheless happily wave cemetery. Whereas in World War I flags to add colour and purpose to the MICHAEL McCORMACK MP After the Armistice his women stood behind their commemoration. Federal Member for Riverina men, this time they were in remains were exhumed many ways right alongside! and reinterred in the COVer PICTURE: Niederzwehren Cemetery, Olive and Pansy King, whose ON GUARD!: Standing to attention with their dress-up uniforms and toy guns, Bongongo Kassel, Germany – a long names are etched into a Public School Year 5 pupils Tom Lucas (left) and Drew Polsen, both 11, certainly look the way from home and family splendidly carved black granite part in front of the Adjungbilly Honour Rolls. Tom has family ties to Joe and Tom Jones who members who ached for his slab installed in 1995 and served in World War I. See the full story in the centrespread. loss. placed beside the Rosewood War Memorial Arch Pte Gaylard’s name is on (pictured), are testament to tumut’s boer war heroes the Roll of Honour at the their district’s determination Australian War Memorial to help win the war. A CENOTAPH made out of granite, marble and stone in Canberra and, perhaps (pictured) situated in a lovely garden overlooking the peaceful more significantly for his Both were born at grounds of Richmond Park honours Tumut’s fallen Boer War loved ones, at Tumbarumba Tumbarumba and they trio. Privates Edward James Morris and Denis Joseph Murray, as well as at Union Jack, a enlisted at Holbrook on the both with the New South Wales Imperial Bushmen (D and F picturesque and peaceful same day – 25 May 1943. Company respectively), died of enteric fever. Typhoid disease place, five kilometres north of They served as Sappers, Olive germs, due to polluted water, proved deadlier than bullets town, where a monument to with 4 Royal Australian in the Second South African War of 1899-1902. Tumut the 17 fallen brave locals was Engineers Training Battalion Trooper Robert Patrick Quin Boyd, with the Bechuanaland unveiled on Empire Day, 24 and Pansy with the Australian Rifle, was killed in action on 18 October 1901 and buried at May 1922. Wonderfontein Farm, Groot Marico. Women’s Army Service. There was a gold mine at They certainly did their bit … Union Jack from 1898 and OFFICES OF MICHAEL McCORMACK: FRESH- their duty and the collective FACED: Henry Gaylard, who the magnificent obelisk was efforts of women right across CANBERRA: PO Box 6022, Parliament House, ACT 2600 P: 6277 4725 F: 6277 8563 died of disease as a PoW aged 23. Picture a tribute to those from the Australia played no small part GRIFFITH: 100 Yambil Street P: 6964 1212 F: 6962 7722 courtesy Catherine and Ron Frew, Adelong Road and Pound in ensuring a hard won victory WAGGA WAGGA: Suite 2 11-15 Fitzmaurice Street P: 6921 4600 F: 6921 5900 AT REST: authors of Sons to the Empire’s Cause Creek area who did not return for the Allies. E: [email protected] www.michaelmccormack.com.au The grave of Private Henry Gaylard. – Tumbarumba in World War I. from the war. mighty men of adjungbilly THERE is a heart-rending marble memorial which has Just days later a similar fate awaited Pte Jeffery, also in been framed and affixed to the wall of the community hall France. at the 125-year-old Bongongo Public School in the hills Several months went by before Courts of Inquiry near Gundagai and Tumut. determined that both men had been killed in action, their The names of 13 locals are inscribed, representing those bodies never recovered. brave men of Adjungbilly and Tomorroma who fought Both are remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux in The Great War of 1914-18, as the tablet records “For Memorial as well as those at Bongongo, Gundagai and King and Country”. the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Sadly, four of those are marked with a cross, indicating All 27 Adjungbilly soldiers returned home from World they were killed in action. War II and only three sustained wounds including Four out of 13 from a close-knit district is a heavy price Military Medallist Sergeant Leonard Gardiner, Pte to pay by a small community doing its duty in the service Norman Ellison and Sgt Berton Kingwill, who was IN REMEMBRANCE: The district’s Roll of Honour of the nation. Mentioned in Despatches. for World War I. (Far left) HEROES ALL: The names of Two of those who died, Alexander Jeffery and Dudley Although tiny and sparsely populated, Adjungbilly Adjungbilly’s finest who fought in World War II. Clyde Maher, enlisted a month apart in 1916 and died punched well above its weight when the call came for within two days of each other the following year. volunteers to fight wars in faraway lands. Private Jeffery, 35, signed on with the Australian Imperial Its men went willingly and fought bravely. Force’s 1st Infantry Battalion on 13 March 1916 and Not all of them made it home. sailed out of Sydney with the 19th Reinforcements aboard HMAT Wiltshire on 22 August the same year. Locals remain grateful for the service they gave. Those plucky Adjungbilly Diggers are remembered and their He was a widower and when he headed off to the deeds admired, especially on ANZAC Day and each time battlefields of Europe he bade farewell to his cherished a child at the historic Bongongo school looks up at the daughter, Hilda, born in 1908, not knowing he would honour boards and asks about the gallant men whose never see her again. names are etched upon them. TROOPSHIPS: The vessels which took two ill-fated How heartbreaking must it have been for this little girl to Adjungbilly Diggers to war … HMAT Euripides lose both parents at such a young age? IMMORTALISED: Dudley Maher and (above) which took Dudley Maher away from his She was granted a pension of £1 a fortnight from 11 Alexander Jeffery’s names on homeland and HMAT Wiltshire (below) which carried October 1917. the panels which form Alex Jeffery to his destiny. the World War I Roll of Like Pte Jeffery, Pte Maher was born at Tumut, was also a Honour at the Australian labourer and he, too, had taken his oath at Cootamundra War Memorial in although a month to the day earlier. Canberra. Red The 23-year-old left Sydney on 9 September on HMAT poppies placed Euripides bound for Plymouth, England, where he spent alongside names of time with the 5th Training Battalion.