Remembering Some of Avoca's Fallen

 

The following thirty men from the Avoca district who served in WW1 are listed on the Avoca Soldiers’ Memorial as fallen: 

• Auld, Andrew 2121 RTA 18.1.19 Discharged 24.4.19 
• Beavis, James Sutherland (Jas Jun.) Lieut died of wounds, France 13/7/1918 
• Beer, Charles 3029 killed in action, France, 27/3/1918 
• Brown, James Neil 4741 died of wounds, France 7/9/1917 
• Brown, John Alexander 1799 died, Belgium 8/6/1917 killed in action 
• Burns, William 3039 died, Belgium 26/9/1917 killed in action 26.9.17 
• Dobley (Doblie), Leslie 1809 / 2301 died Belgium 4/10/1917 killed in action 
• Driver, William Henry died Melbourne 14/8/1915 
• Evans, Gilbert George Henry 148 died of wounds30/7/1916 
• Fish, Walter 2227 killed in action Gallipoli 13/7/1915 
• Harrowfield, Norman Andrew 1740 died France 26 - 28/7/1916 killed in action 
• Henderson, John Hamilton died Cerebro Meningitis 8/10/1915 buried Avoca 
• Henry, Clifford Albert 22076 died of wounds16.12.17 
• Howell, Tom Pym 2126 killed in action France 16/4/1918 
• Kiehl, Anton 2020 killed in action Gallipoli 19/5/1915 
• Lambert, Shadrach 1537 Discharged Jan 1917 
• Lansdell, Francis Henry (Harry) 7516 killed in action France 15/4/1918 
• Livingstone, John (Jack) 2406A died of sickness France 21/10/1918 
• McArdle, John Eric Farquhar 2544 killed in action 26.9.17 
• McDowell, William Robert 3831 killed in action 26.9.17 
• Oppy, William Edward 1964 died 13/10/1917 killed in action 
• Rowland, Henry Herbert 1131 killed in action 8/5/1915 Gallipoli, Lone Pine 
• Rowland, Wesley Richard 1877 killed in action 21/7/1916 Pozieres
• Smith, Stanley William 3484 died of wounds9/8/1918 
• Summers, David L. (Dave) 635 killed in action 19/7/1916 
• Templeton, George Hugh 4597 died of wounds 26/9/1917 
• Turpin, Henry 6357 died of wounds 17/4/1917 
• Willmott, Charles Jonathon 401 killed in action 25/4/1915 
• Wrigley, Fred Rankin 3168 killed in action 24.4.18 
• Yates, Leslie Reginald (Les) 2198 or 1861 killed in action 26.7.1916

Though from the designated Memorial catchment area, the following seventeen men, killed in action or died of wounds or illness during or immediately after the war, are not listed on the Avoca Soldiers’ Memorial: 

• Barnes, George Herbert 
• Barnes, Henry William 
• Chapman, Jas Mayman 
• Cox, Graham Rodgers 
• Cox, Lyle Hampden 
• Croft, Charles William 
• Currie, Hubert Roulstone Clifford (Cliff R.) 
• Davenport, Harold A. 
• George, Herbert L. 
• Hartigan, Clarence Victor 
• Knuckey, Frederick William Laurence 
• Mitchell, William Dawson 
• Petherick, Ordmonde Leslie(Orme) 
• Sells, William John 
• Stewart, Alfred Eyvel 
• Tootell, Edward 
• Young, John Percival 

Each of these men has his story. Here is one: 

Henry William Barnes, AIF number 2790, was born in Avoca. 

In June 1915, 38 years old, married, and working as a mill hand, Barnes enlisted in Perth, Western Australia. 

His battalion, the 51st, arrived in France on 12 June 1916 and immediately moved into the trenches on the Western Front. Barnes was promoted to corporal on 5 August. 

In August and September the battalion fought in its first major engagement, at Mouquet Farm, suffering casualties equivalent to a third of its strength. 

On 14 August 1916, less than a fortnight after his promotion, Harry Barnes was killed in action. 

His wife completed the Roll of Honour circular, stating that he had been born in Avoca and had gone to school in Percydale. The circular asked if Henry Barnes was associated with any other member of the AIF. She said that Henry's brother [George Barnes] was also killed, on 28 August 1917.

CORP. H. W. BARNES. (1916, November 5). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), p. 3 (First Section). Retrieved November 10, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58019438 

Henry Barnes is listed on both the Percydale State School Honor Board and the Moonambel School Roll of Honor. 

His name is not listed on the Avoca Soldiers’ Memorial.

Sources

National Archives of Australia

NAA: B2455, BARNES H W - Barnes Henry William : SERN 2790 : POB Avoca VIC : POE Perth WA : NOK W Barnes Frances; digitised record at Barcode 3050618

Australian War Memorial

• 51st Australian Infantry Battalion

• Roll of Honour circular Henry William Barnes

Honor Boards

During WW1 and in the decade that followed, 'Honor Boards', also known as 'Honor Rolls',* were constructed and displayed in towns across Australia. An Honor Board was a list of the members of a local society or institution who had enlisted in the Army. Schools erected Honor Boards of ex-students who had signed on, and churches of their joined-up parishioners. Post Offices, and fire-stations, and railway employees'clubs, and other recreational, commercial, and philanthropic bodies, including local branches of State and and Federal organisations such as the Australian Natives' Association, all created and publicly displayed honor lists of their own.

It has been suggested that Honor Boards were erected by communities impatient to have their contribution to the war effort acknowledged and, more cynically, that displaying the names of those who had accepted their duty to serve was a reminder to men who had not yet enlisted.

In September 1920 the Honor Board of the Avoca branch of the Australian Natives’ Association (ANA) was unveiled. It had been made in Avoca, by Mr H.F. Classen, the town's cabinetmaker.

Unveiling the Board, Mr Moir, the Chief President of the Association, declared that the Avoca Board was typical of the many Honor Boards he had unveiled in Victoria. It was a 'splendid work of art, made from Australian timber by skilled Australian hands, and designed by a skilled brain'. He was concerned in his address to note that history was soon forgotten and many boards would be neglected, but he prophesied that 'the boards, if cared for, would be of greater value in the future, as [Australians] wanted their descendants to know who helped to make the history of this great island continent'.

 

The ANA Honor Roll now located in the Avoca RSL Hall

In October 1999, Mr Herb Robinson, an Avoca WW2 veteran, kindly arranged for me to view several of the town's Honor Boards in various churches, local halls and in the Avoca RSL. I was able to learn a little about the men whose names are recorded on Avoca's honour boards and about the Avoca associations that erected these memorials to them.

* 'Honour' is variously spelled, with and without the 'u'; as with 'Labor' in the name of the political party the British convention was not always followed.

99th anniversary of the opening of the Avoca Soldiers' Memorial

 

The Avoca Soldiers' Memorial in October 2020

Ninety-nine years ago, on 18 November 1921, a large crowd gathered in the main street of the Victorian goldfields town of Avoca for the formal opening of its new band rotunda. The dedication ceremony, part of a 'Back to Avoca' festival, had as its most distinguished speaker the Nationalist Senator Harold Elliott, who as Brigadier General 'Pompey' Elliott in the recent war had many men under his command who had enlisted from Avoca and the Avoca district.

Portrait taken about 1918 of Australian Brigader-General Harold "Pompey" Elliott (1878–1931).

When it was first proposed, the Soldiers’ Memorial Band Rotunda was intended to honour the men who had enlisted from the South Riding of the Shire of Avoca and those who had enlisted from Percydale, ten miles northwest. By 1921, however, the small gold-mining settlement of Homebush, five miles northeast of Avoca, was in the last stages of economic decline. Though not part of the South Riding of the Shire of Avoca, its population had shrunk so much that the Homebush Memorial Fund  committee asked to join the Avoca Memorial Fund.

The lists of the names of soldiers to be inscribed on the Memorial appear to have been prepared in rather a rush.  In a letter published in the Avoca Mail in mid-November 1918, Councillor Paten of the Shire of Avoca asked to be given the names of soldiers who had been on active service from the South Riding of the Shire and from the Percydale portion of the North Riding. On 23 July 1921 a sub-committee of the Avoca Memorial Fund met to discuss names to be included on the memorial. A list of soldiers from Natte Yallock had been supplied by G. Cain, a farmer. Robert Robinson, who had served in the AIF, contributed a list of soldiers from Percydale. Names for Avoca and Homebush were compiled by the Anglican vicar Canon Reynolds and Mr William Helliar, a farmer from Natte Yallock.  Several of the men listed on the Homebush Honor Roll prepared in Homebush in 1917 were not included on the Avoca memorial, and some men listed on the Avoca School Honor Roll and the Percydale School Honor Board are also absent. In the end, the names of only half the men eligible to appear on the Memorial Band Rotunda were recorded there.

To be precise, only 117 of the 223 men (52%) from the district who enlisted from the specified areas and served in the War are named on the Memorial. In deriving this percentage I have counted men from Avoca, Percydale, Rathscar, Natte Yallock and Homebush. These centres were specifically intended to be included in the Memorial's catchment area. I have excluded men mentioned in the local papers who are not named on other memorials, including men reported in the Avoca Free Press and Avoca Mail as having enlisted from the district or having been recruited at Avoca. I have also excluded from my calculation men from Amphitheatre, Barkly, Bung Bong,  Moonambel and Warrenmang. Although men from these areas were mentioned in the Avoca newspapers, the Memorial was not intended to include men from these areas.  For example, Percy Tuck - the first casualty reported in the local papers - was from Warrenmang, and therefore out of area and not listed.


[Over the next few days, a series of posts will consider these honour boards and other records, comparing them to the list of names on the memorial.]

Christmas Eve 1915 at Homebush Lower

On 1 January 1916 the Avoca Free Press reported that a Christmas Eve farewell had been held at Lower Homebush for Private George Templeton, on leave before sailing for the front.

The occasion was also a welcome home for Private Fred James, who had recently returned wounded.

Private Wes Rowland was also present. He was due to sail shortly.

Two of these three men, George and Wes, were killed. Only Fred survived the War, invalided out.

HOMEBUSH LOWER. (1916, January 1). Avoca Free Press and Farmers' and Miners' Journal (Vic. : 1900; 1914 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151688697

George Hugh Templeton was born in 1893 at Homebush Victoria to George Templeton, a miner, and his wife Annie. The younger George enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 23 August 1915, a labourer, unmarried, aged 22 1/2.


Two years later, on 26 September 1917 at the age of 25, he died in Belgium at the 17th Casualty Clearing Station of wounds received in action at the Battle of Polygon Wood near Ypres. He was buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.

Photograph of George Templeton retrieved from http://www.lijssenthoek.be/en/address/6797/-george-hugh-templeton.html 

I am afraid I know very little about Fred James. He was called Texas, apparently. I don't know what that implies, if anything.


Wesley Richards 'Wes' Rowland was born in 1892 at Homebush Lower. He enlisted as Wesley Richard Rowlands at Bendigo on 9 August 1915, 23 years old, unmarried, a labourer.


Wes Rowland was killed in action between 19 and 20 July 1916 at the Battle of Fromelles, one of the 544 casualties of the 31st Australian Infantry Battalion.

Avoca newspapers and his family wrongly reported that he had been killed at Pozieres, eighty kilometres away, on 21 July 1916. A court of enquiry in August 1917 found that he had been killed in action at Fromelles


Wes Rowland's service personnel dossier states he is buried in the vicinity of Fleurbaix, a few kilometres from the village of Fromelles. He is memorialised at V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial, Fromelles.

On the Avoca Soldiers Memorial and on the Honor Board of the Avoca Methodist Church Wes and his brother, Henry Herbert killed 1915, are listed among the fallen.

Family of John and Jane Rowland nee Lardner with seven of their nine children about 1910. The photo possibly includes the two sons who died in World War 1: Henry Herbert Rowlands (1888 - 1915) and Wesley Richard Rowlands (1892 - 1916) . But which of the three sons in the back row is photographed is not clear: it could be any of Henry, Wes, Albert born 1885, or Leopold born 1890. Photo thanks to Neville Rowland and the Avoca and District Historical Society.

 References

HOMEBUSH LOWER. (1916, January 1). Avoca Free Press and Farmers' and Miners' Journal (Vic. : 1900; 1914 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151688697

National Archives of Australia: B2455  TEMPLETON George Hugh : Service Number - 4597 : Place of Birth - Homebush VIC : Place of Enlistment - Melbourne VIC : Next of Kin - (Father) TEMPLETON George

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour for George Hugh Templeton including link to Roll of Honour Circular completed by his mother

HOMEBUSH LOWER. (1915, October 30). Avoca Free Press and Farmers' and Miners' Journal (Vic. : 1900; 1914 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151685532

National Archives of Australia: B2455 ROWLANDS Wesley Richard : Service Number - 1877 3941 : Place of Birth - Maryborough VIC : Place of Enlistment - Broadmeadows VIC : Next of Kin - (Father) ROWLANDS John

TO THE MEMORY OF AUSTRALIAN HEROES. (1917, November 9). Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 - 1900; 1915 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152147905

Australian Heroes Honored. (1918, April 17). Avoca Free Press and Farmers' and Miners' Journal (Vic. : 1900; 1914 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article151681674 ; UNVEILING OF HONOR BOARD. (1918, April 19). Avoca Mail (Vic. : 1863 - 1900; 1915 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152145390

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour for Wesley Richard Rowlands including link to Roll of Honour Circular completed by his mother