Colin Hicks was the first serviceman from Mernda to enlist and also the first casualty from the district in the Great War, dying of wounds while being invalided back to Egypt. Hicks suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen and died at 2.30 a.m. on 14 May, 1915 on board the hospital ship H.S. Gascon […]
Tag: WW1
World War 1 Casualty : Daryl Gardener and Lance Siska Blannin-Ferguson (Arthur’s Creek)
Daryl Gardner and Lance Siska Blannin-Ferguson are both included in our Honour Roll, but the reality is that neither probably ever set foot on the district; their inclusion based on their father being based at Arthur’s Creek State School; the servicemen with their mother in what appears to have been an irreparable marriage breakdown. Both […]
World War 1 Casualties : The Shires of Whittlesea and Epping
The Shires of Whittlesea and Epping : 1918 According to the Municipal Directory of 1918, the Shire of Whittlesea comprised : Arthur’s Creek, Bruce’s Creek, Bundoora, Doreen, Eden Park, Epping (population 625), Mernda, South Yan Yean (700), Merriang, Morang (South, 725), Nutfield, Scrubby Creek, Tanck’s Corner, Thomastown (283), Whittlesea (800), Woollert, Woodstock (275) and Yan […]
World War 1 Casualty : Charles Frederick Bromfield (Eltham)
Charles Edward Bromfield is included on the fairly convincing evidence of his name appearing on the Eltham War Memorial, the Shire of Eltham Memorial Tower, the Eltham State School Honour Board (as Bloomfield) and the Eltham Methodist Church Honour Board. Despite all those references, there was only one Victorian casualty of this family name and […]
World War One Casualties : The Shire of Eltham
World War One : The Shire of Eltham Update: April 2021 The website mentioned is no longer active,. [admin] Update: January, 2017 The related links below now include an index to Shire of Eltham casualties (currently 126 listed), plus an optional download of the full In Memoriam Roll (significantly larger file size) The original scope […]
World War 1 Casualty : George Thomas Weir (St. Andrews/Queenstown)
Although claiming to be 42 years of age when he enlisted, Weir was actually 46 when he died of wounds on a hospital ship after being evacuated from Gallipoli. He was one of the oldest in our archives to have been killed and left a widow and three children, then living in Coburg. In a […]
World War 1 Casualty : Robert Jubilee Harris (Kangaroo Ground)
Harris’s death was not reported in the Evelyn Observer – perhaps understandably family grief played a part as his father, Robert senior was the proprietor of the newspaper! Harris was one the hundreds posted Missing following the offensive around Fromelles on the night of July 19, 1916 and declared Killed In Action as at that […]
World War 1 Casualty – Robert Meadows (aka Allan Cassell) (Eltham)
A somewhat bizarre case of a serviceman enlisting under his nephew’s name, the deception seemingly unknown to the A.I.F. until a letter from his father clarified the situation after his death. His sacrifice was commemorated on both the Eltham and Research War Memorials under the name of Meadows, but confusing the issue further is the […]
World War 1 Casualty : Harry Conway (Christmas Hills)
Harry Conway from “Penrith”, Christmas Hills died of wounds at Rouen, France on 28 April, 1918. Conway had certainly the most remarkable background of any serviceman from the-then Shire of Eltham to die in the Great War – born in the Singapore states, educated in India and having served four months Nigiri Volunteer Rifles before […]
World War 1 Casualty : William Michael McDonald (Preston)
From 12 Regent-street, Preston, McDonald was alternatively listed as an agricultural student and a cheese-maker on embarkation. Somewhat unique in our archives in that he served in Egypt and Palestine with the Camel Corps rather than a Light Horse unit, McDonald died in the 14 General Hospital, Cairo on 8 May, 1917 from a septic haemorrhage […]