From 28 South Crescent, Northcote, Phillip Fargher senior did not enlist, but played a significant role in the war effort as the local Area Commander of for Northcote training after a somewhat controversial law declaring compulsory home training was introduced by Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, on July 1, 1911. Like many Area […]
Tag: WW1
World War 1 Casualty : Norman John Embelton (Preston)
One of around 20 local volunteers that died before embarking for overseas. Most succumbed to the effects of disease contracted in camp, predominantly during an outbreak of cerebro-spinal meningitis in July and August of 1915, but Norman John Embelton met with a fatal accident when he fell from his horse in Epping-road, Preston just days […]
World War 1 Casualty : James Radford Dredge (Preston)
James Radford Dredge was from Wallace-street, Preston and appears to have been an uncomplicated soul who just got on with his job – until one night when the daily horrors of war may have become too much for him. The forty-year old Dredge was a cousin of other servicemen from the inter-related families that paid […]
World War 1 Casualty : Kennan Earl Christian
Rather than the infantrymen that made up the vast bulk of Darebin’s volunteers, “Ken” Christian was unusual in that he was one of just two locals from Northcote (the other William George Vincent Williams, the first Australian to be killed in World War One) to have served at sea, in his case with the British […]
World War 1 Casualty : William McCarthy Braithwaite (Preston)
Our image : The Braithwaite family, Colonel William Braithwaite, (wearing cap at rear), William junior on right with extended family and motor car, a 30 h.p. Hotchkiss imported from France, circa 1911. Braithwaite senior took a keen interest in new invention of the time. the motor car, competing along with another local, the nurseryman James […]
WW1 Casualty : Maurice Vincent Barry (Northcote)
Strangely by today’s standards, not a lot of the deaths of servicemen were reported in the Family Notices section of either the Melbourne dailies or the Preston Leader. One notable exception was Maurice “Mickey” Barry, whose sorrowful mother was still placing In Memoriam notices in The Leader some ten or twelve years after her son’s […]
WW1 Casualty : Lindsay Thomas Adams (Alphington)
When he volunteered in early March, 1915 from Alphington, the 19-year-old Lindsay Thomas Adams was one of just handful from the district listed as a student, in his case, Teaching at Melbourne University after completing his Matriculation at Scotch College. His military career was also somewhat unique in that he was one who died after […]
Darebin’s Great War
Today’s City of Darebin encompasses Northcote, Preston, Thornbury, Reservoir, Fairfield and Alphington, the latter two districts added to the original City of Northcote since the Great War. Extensive research since around 2003-4 has identified around 850 servicemen (add two women) closely associated with Darebin that gave their lives in service of their country during the […]
Arthur Edward Griffiths : World War 1 veteran
WW1 Veteran: Arthur Edward Griffiths Lance Corporal No: 920 Born in Victoria ~ August 1893 (Narioka near Echuca) Died in Victoria ~ October 1945 He lays to rest at Fawkner Cemetery (Victoria) Garden of Remembrance 1 Compartment 34 Niche 23 Arthur enlisted in Echuca on 19 August 1914 & was discharged in Melbourne 23 September 1919. He […]
William John Symons: WW 1 Victoria Cross Winner
Born on 10th of July 1889 in Eaglehawk, Victoria to William Sampson Symons and his wife Mary Emma (ne: Manning). William was the eldest of five boys and lived with his family in Eaglehawk until his father passed away in 1904 at which point Mary moved the family to the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick. After […]