Remembering the Past to Maintain our Future

by Mike Wong

THE mood was sombre at the Merriwa Cenotaph as locals and visitors alike came to pay their respects to the fallen and to those continuing to serve our country on the centenary of Remembrance Day.

See photos below.

One hundred years ago, after continuous warfare raged for more than four years, World War I ended with the signing of an armistice on November 11, 1918.

The result for Australia – a country of fewer than five million?

In the words of Merriwa Returned and Services League (RSL) Sub-branch President, Mr Brion Booth, “For Australia, the First World War remains the costliest in terms of deaths and casualties, 416,809 enlisted, of whom 60,000 were killed and 153,000 were wounded, gassed or taken prisoner”.

Thankfully our nation has not again experienced such a catastrophic loss of life on the same scale as World War 1 and one hundred years after the conflict ended, we now embrace a broader meaning of Remembrance Day.

Today we are now more likely to recognise the tremendous contribution of women, who not only directly participated in the military, but also at home.

Besides keeping families together, women were working as factory machinists, in hospitals, contributing as farm labourers, drivers or simply as volunteers; women were always there.

Merriwa locals, Philomena Constable and Marj Ward, have together served as Australian Red Cross volunteers for a combined total of 104 years and the 2018 Remembrance Day had special meaning.

“It’s a special day for me as I’ve lost family members in war” said Mrs Ward.

Mrs Constable added, “It’s so sad, so many people didn’t come home”.

We’re also gaining momentum in recognising the contributions made by our indigenous people, who according to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, “have served in the Australian Defence Forces since the 1860’s – serving in the Boer War and both World War I and World War II, through to service in Afghanistan”.

The contributions of our indigenous people to the defence of our country is especially profound when it is remembered that according to the Australian Defence Act 1909, those “not substantially of European origin” were exempted from service in time of war.

The diverse crowd in attendance ranged from young infants barely able to walk through to those of us barely able to walk through advancing age.

Passing motorists on Bettington Street slowed as they drove passed the assembly at the town Cenotaph that was flanked by red poppies basking in the warm sun.

Some may doubt the relevance of commemorative ceremonies like Remembrance Day thinking that they may be outdated or anachronistic, bearing little relevance to our nation’s young.

The mood of today’s crowd however was best summarised by a Cassilis local called Margaret Ellis, whose husband Jack was a proud Australian soldier of six years, “It’s good to see the kids here – this is the new generation, they are what our men fought for”.

Lest We Forget

Names of the Fallen from Merriwa

– supplied by the Merriwa RSL Sub-branch

WORLD WAR I

Nicohas Baker, Cecil Buckely, John Cllaghan, W Cunningham, Charles Daniels, Harold R Farr, Rex H French, Roy C Hackett, John Heath, Cyril R Lawless, James Lee, Steven Page, Lesley Parkinson, J Paul, Samuel Pittman, Ed Rippon, Albert Spratt, Clarrie Stair, T J Tracey, Wilfred Winey, Walter P Wickham, Cyril R Wotton, John Miller and Victor Piper.

WORLD WAR II

Kenneth B Nunn-Patrick, John Galway Lochrey, Verdun James Wicks, Eric Gordon McGlinchey, Harold Timothy Egan, Max Milton Bettington, Irwin Jmes Want, Reginald Earl Mitchell, Dermot John Hegarty, Ian Frederick McMaster, Thomas Guy Vincent, Norman John Nairne, Frank Albert Hinds, Thomas Davies Hinds, Simon John Scully and Maxwell Douglas King.