by Susan Webster The Heidelberg Voice, August 1, 1979 page 6
Modern memory encompasses two world wars. In those two battles we saw the shift from the importance of armed men to military machines.
Yet in any war, no matter how much technology is deployed, the human element of man fighting man will still be the essence.
There is something pathetic about the effect of war on the populace. Hear the account of Mrs Isabelle Pitman, one long-time resident of Heidelberg, who can recall the first announcement of war back in 1914.
“It was all very frightening, but it was all very exciting too, as I remember when hostilities were declared,” she said.
“All the boys volunteered in those days, and a lot of the boys from the area fronted up to fight. They didn’t ask questions. They just did it because it had to be done.
“I remember, they had to go to camp. Most went by train, and they left at 8 am on a Monday morning. Everyone was there is send them off.”
So the war had started… the Great War; the war to end all wars. And Ypres and the Somme came to the breakfast tables of Heidelberg via Government dispatches and casualty lists.
But in November 1918 armistice was declared, and via crystal sets and wireless sets the word soon spread.
GREAT EXCITEMENT
“As I remember we were in the middle of having tea that night. Mrs Pitman said. “There were noises in the street and great excitement everywhere.
“We went to see what it was about and everywhere people were leaving their houses to come into the street. Everyone was so overjoyed . . . especially those who had boys coming home.
“I can’t remember that there was dancing and singing, but I can remember everyone was so very happy.
“Of course, then there were the boys who didn’t come home.
“But there were the boys who did. You’d hear that so-an-so was going to be coming home so you’d go down to the station and wait for him to come in. Or, if they were going further past the station, you’d still go down so you could wave at them as they went past.
WAVING AT THE BOYS
“Everyone in the whole township was just so happy to have them back.
“Even years after the boys came home from the wars we’d celebrate Anzac Day. They used to march past Airlie Hospital and Sister Vickers from the hospital would stand out the front in her red cape and wave at the boys as they went past. And they would wave back….I always remember that.
Photo: Unveling of Heidelberg War Memorial, 1921. Heidelberg Historical Society in partnership with Yarra Plenty Regional Library
This story also appears in “Fine Spirit and Pluck: World War One Stories from Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea” published by Yarra Plenty Regional Library, August 2016
