Brought to you by
The Hon. Thomas George MP
APRIL 2012
Member for Lismore
Communities honour and
respect the ANZAC legend
Lost sons of
Murwillumbah
remembered
The Murwillumbah War
Memorial was unveiled on
ANZAC Day 1924 by a
wife, a mother and a
sister of three of the dead
listed on the monument.
The memorial contains
the names of 218 locals
who served and died on
active service in the First
World War. An additional
plaque in black granite
was fixed to the plinth in
November 1977 and
commemorates those who
died in subsequent
conflicts – World War II,
Korea, Malaysia and
Vietnam. The monument
is an Ionic Column set
upon a pedestal and
surmounted by a globe. It
was made from stone
quarried from Tweed
Heads in 1923. The
builders were the local
masons Armitage Bros.
Source: Register of War
Memorials in NSW
The ANZAC spirit on the battlefields of Gallipoli is a significant and defining
part of Australia’s history and our growth as a nation.
Ninety seven years ago on April 25 this year, the first wave of Australian troops
landed at Gallipoli in one of the bloodiest campaigns of the First World War.
Communities across the Lismore Electorate come together on this national day of
ceremony to honour the men and women who have served this great country and
given the ultimate sacrifice so today we can enjoy the peace and freedom of a true
democracy.
The Gallipoli campaign is significant to our area as many soldiers from across the
districts fought here – indeed in many theatres of war.
We also honour a young soldier from Lismore named Joe Stratford who is officially
named in documents as being the first ANZAC ashore at Gallipoli on that fateful
dawn of the first landings. Corporal Stratford was shot within moments of reaching
the rocky shore.
It is his bravery and the bravery of so many thousands of others in all conflicts
which we stand to remember on ANZAC Day.
Their sacrifice is important and should
never be forgotten.
Contact
It is always great to see the involvement
of community groups and young children
Thomas George MP
on this very special day of remembrance.
Electorate Office:
I urge you all to try to attend a
commemoration service or march this
55 Carrington Street,
year in honour of all our service men and
Lismore NSW 2480
women who have served Australia, and
Phone: 6621 3624
continue to serve today.
Fax: 6622 1403
Email:
[email protected]
Web:
Thomas George MP
www.thomasgeorge.com.au
Member for Lismore
COVER PICTURE:
Member for Lismore
Thomas George pays
his respects at the
Murwillumbah War
Memorial.
LEFT: Thomas
George and his wife
Deborah take time
to reflect at the
Lismore Memorial.
Next stop
Australia:
Kokoda was
a vital win
Private Alfred Kerr
Private Gavin Wynd
Two local lads died in
fight to save Australia
Two local soldiers virtually serving
side-by-side in the Middle East were
among the hundreds of Diggers
rushed back to Australia to fight the
Japanese invasion at Kokoda.
Private Alfred Henry Kerr (2/2nd
Battalion), of Wiangaree, and Private
Gavin Robertson Thomas Wynd (2/1st
Battalion), of Bexhill, were engaged in
desert warfare when they were
evacuated back to Australia.
These young Diggers and hundreds
like them set sail from the Middle East
on March 10, 1942 bound for Australia
and then on to New Guinea where the
troops already there were under
intense attack.
On the voyage back home both
battalions, as part of the 16th and
17th Brigades, were diverted and
between March 27 and July 13 they
defended Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from
possible Japanese attack. They finally
disembarked in Australia in early
August 1942 and were quickly back on
deck to New Guinea.
Their first campaign against the
Japanese was the advance along the
Kokoda Track to the Japanese
beachheads between September and
December 1942.
The 2/2nd fought major engagements
at Templeton’s Crossing (October 20),
Oivi (November 5-12), and on the
Sanananda Track (November 21-
December 10), and suffered heavily
from both wounds and sickness.
It arrived in Port Moresby on
September 21, 673 strong but
withdrew from the Sanananda Track
with only 88 men – 217 were killed
and 368 were wounded or ill.
Alf Kerr was killed in action at
Templeton’s Crossing on the Kokoda
Track on October 20, 1942, aged 29.
The 2/1st fought in two campaigns −
the advance along the Kokoda Trail to
the Japanese beachheads with the
2/2nd, and the drive to clear the
Japanese from the Aitape-Wewak
region of New Guinea between
December 1944 and August 1945.
The Kokoda Track fighting, involving
major battles at Eora Creek (October
20-29), Gorari (November 9-12) and
Sanananda was particularly costly,
with more than two-thirds of the
battalion killed, wounded, or
evacuated sick.
Gavin Wynd was killed in action at
Eora Creek on October 23, 1942.
Ninety-nine Australians lost their
lives in this battle, and another
192 were wounded.
It was to be the most costly battle of
the Kokoda Campaign. Gavin was
buried at Eora Creek War Cemetery.
These graves were later moved to the
Bomana War Cemetery, Port Moresby.
The fight for the now famous
Kokoda Track left more than
600 Australian troops dead
and nearly 1700 wounded. It
was the effort of these
soldiers – 70 years ago this
year – which saved Australia
from the Japanese invasion.
Japanese forces landed at
Gona on the north coast of
Papua on July 21, 1942, intent
on crossing the Owen Stanley
Range to capture the
Australian base at Port
Moresby.
The next four months was a
battle of fierce jungle warfare
which tested the mettle of the
Australian troops against a
larger and well-trained
Japanese force. Battles raged
along the Track as ground was
lost and then regained by
both armies, but finally it was
the Australians, with some
local help, who won the fight.
It was on the Kokoda Track
that the Papuan people – the
Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels – played a
crucial role in helping the
Australians.
The battle for the Kokoda
Track was finally won by
Australia in mid-November
1942 after intense warfare.
Wounded members of the 39th
Australian Infantry Battalion in a
six-day trek along a jungle trail to get
to the base hospital. All are suffering
from gunshot wounds sustained in
the fighting in the Kokoda area.
PICTURES: The Australian Hospital Ship Centaur
(above) in Sydney in early 1943 and contemporary
newspaper clippings revealing the Centaur’s fate.
Lucky escape from
sinking Centaur
… but 268 perish in ruthless attack on hospital ship
Kyogle-born Private Edwin Lawrie Ravenscroft
Private Herbert Lyneham all had connections.
was quite literally one of the few lucky ones to
Casino man, Private George Murphy, survived the
survive the ruthless attack and sinking of the
sinking suffering shock and exposure.
Australian Hospital Ship Centaur in 1943.
The survivors spent 35 hours on rafts before
He was among the 332 medical personnel and
being rescued. Sister Ellen Savage, the only one
civilian crew on board and one of only 64 to
of 12 nursing sisters on board to survive, though
survive after a Japanese submarine fired a
injured herself, gave great help to the other
torpedo and made a direct hit on the vessel at 4
survivors and was awarded the George Medal for
o’clock on the morning of May 14.
this work.
It sank within three minutes of being hit with no
The commander of the submarine, Lieutenant
time to send an SOS call for help.
Commander Hajima Nakagawa, was put on trial
two years after the war for sinking the Centaur
Edwin, a 28-year-old truck driver at enlistment,
and was sentenced to eight years hard labour.
was listed among the wounded as suffering
“exposure and shock”. He was discharged from
It took another six decades to find the wreck of
hospital about two weeks later.
the Centaur − lying in one piece at a depth of
2059m about 30 nautical miles off the southern
He went on to finish serving in World War II with
tip of Moreton Island, off Queensland’s souththe 2/12th Australian Field Ambulance until
east coast.
returning home to his wife Winsome in Dorrigo.
The wreck will be protected by the Australian
Edwin – who was born on November 11, 1911, or
Government’s Historic Shipwrecks Act and will
the day 11/11/11 which is considered so lucky by
many – lived a long and happy life until his death become a memorial to the lives that were lost.
Lest We Forget.
on June 13, 2002, aged 90.
He was one of at least six people
on the Centaur with links to the
Lismore electorate.
Sadly, the other five did not
survive the carnage of that
fateful early morning attack.
Privates Douglas Basil Colefax
(born at Murwillumbah),
Frederick John Denne (lived in
Lismore), William Thomas
Lawson (born and lived at
Murwillumbah), Clifford George
Montgomery (born and lived in
Lismore) and William Thomas
Geaghan (lived at Kyogle) all
served with the 2/12th Field
Ambulance.
There were also a number of
others from surrounding
districts, including four from
Casino where Privates John
The sinking of the hospital ship Centaur sparked outrage in Australia ... this
Moran, James Doherty and
wartime poster urged Australians to: Work, save, fight and so avenge the nurses!
‘Anzac House’ pill
box blast kills
Kyogle farmer
Lancaster
crash claims
local man
Henry Smith’s Murwillumbah
family was devastated by news
of their son’s death just days
before the Christmas of 1942.
Flight Sergeant Henry William
Joseph Smith was an air gunner
in one of the giant Lancaster
bombers attached to RAF 50
Squadron.
A salesman prior to enlisting in
October 1940, he trained in
Canada and England under the
Empire Air Training Scheme.
Henry was later promoted to
Pilot Officer and celebrated
being awarded a Distinguished
Flying Medal (DFM) on
November 6, 1942.
Just over a month later Henry
and his crew would meet a
terrible fate.
He and five other crew of
Lancaster W4382 left RAF Base
Skellingthorpe,
Lincolnshire, on a
mission to Soltau,
Germany on
December 17, 1942.
The bomber was
lost en route; no
trace of it, or its
crew, was ever
found.
Henry W J Smith
(DFM) was 25 years
of age.
He made such a miraculous
recovery from a severe gun
shot wound to the head that
Kyogle’s Jasper Iverson was
back in action in France in just
three months.
His wounds were marked as
“severe” and considered
dangerously life threatening by
doctors but his quick recovery
was testament to Private Jasper
Jens Iverson’s mettle as a
soldier.
He was discharged from
hospital in England in October
1917 and was given a number
of weeks leave before returning
to France in December and
rejoining his battalion in
January 1917.
A week later he was transferred to
the 1st Division Salvage Company.
He rejoined the 9th Battalion on
June 11, 1917.
On October 4, 1917 Jasper and
another soldier were carrying
barbed wire and other materials to
a captured German pill box located
between Zonnebeke and Polygon
Wood, Belgium.
The Australian troops referred to
the captured pill box as “Anzac
House”.
A bomb blast exploded near the
men and Jasper sustained shrapnel
wounds to his chest.
Tragically, Jasper died two hours
later at a nearby dressing station.
He was 29 years of age.
The news back home hit the
farming district hard, with Jasper
and his family well-known in the
Kyogle and Urbenville areas.
The Avro Lancaster was the most
successful and well-known of the
British heavy bombers of the
Second World War. From 1942 the
Lancaster became Bomber
Command’s most important bomber
with 61 squadrons eventually being
equipped with the aircraft. It could
carry loads of up to 8165kg, or if
converted could carry both
12,000lbs (5443kg) “Tallboy”
bombs, and 22,000lbs (9979kg)
Grand Slam deep penetration
bombs − the only bomber to carry
bombs of this size in WWII.
Boy soldiers paid the ultimate price ...
Youngest ANZAC is
part of the legend
Jim Martin was just a boy –
With this in mind, Amelia
a 14-year-old boy who lived and Charles finally signed a
and died in a man’s world.
letter of consent for Jim to
join. His official papers list
Joining up at 14 years and 3
him
as an 18-year-old linked
months of age, Private
to the 1st Reinforcements,
James Charles Martin is the
21st Battalion. He enlisted
youngest known ANZAC
on April 12, 1915 – three
soldier to have fought in
days before the dawn raid
WWI.
on Gallipoli.
His story is one of bravery
Jim embarked from
which today – 97 years since
Melbourne aboard HMAT
the Gallipoli landings on
Berrima
on June 28, 1915
April 25, 1915 – has forged
and
by
late
August he was
the Spirit of ANZAC in
on the ship Southland
Australian society.
bound for Gallipoli. His first
Jim was born at Tocumwal
test of survival came when a
on January 3, 1901 – two
German submarine fired a
days after the nation
torpedo at the Southland
celebrated the new
and during the evacuation
Commonwealth of Australia.
he fell into the sea and
He spent his infant years in
nearly drowned.
the town until his family
Finally at Gallipoli, Jim
moved to Melbourne when
settled into trench life and
he was five.
became aware of the
dangers around him. One of
Charlie Martin, Jim’s father,
the greatest dangers was
arrived home dejected one
disease and illness and soon
day after being deemed
after his arrival at Gallipoli
medically unfit for
Jim started to fall ill. Sadly,
enlistment in the Australian
Imperial Force and service in on October 25, 1915, Jim
Martin died of typhoid and
WWI.
related complications just
Jim, the only son in the
hours after being taken
family, calmly told his
aboard the hospital ship
father: “It’s OK Dad, I’ll go.”
Glenart Castle. He was buried
Those words divided the
at sea the next day.
family and
Jim’s mother
Amelia was
adamant her
son would not
join at such a
young age.
Jim threatened
to run off and
enlist under
another name
and never to
contact his
Private James (Jim) Martin with his five sisters
family again.
(from left) Annie, Alice, Millie, Ester and Mary.
Woodenbong boy
fighting a man’s war
Young George Slade of Woodenbong was
working hard to support his mother and two
younger siblings when the First World War broke
out.
George (pictured above) was 17 years old and
had assumed great responsibility for the family.
His father had died when George was just four
and now he was working as a farm labourer.
Like so many boys his age, when war broke out
they were drawn to enlist on the promise of a
great adventure overseas.
George joined up on January 7, 1916 – listing his
age as 21 years – and embarked with the 17th
Reinforcements on SS Hawkes Bay on April 20,
1916.
He was hospitalised with a case of the mumps
but recovered well and rejoined his 12th
Battalion. He was soon to learn what war was all
about – this was no adventure.
Sent to the Western Front amid fierce fighting in
France, Private George Harold Slade was killed
in action at Lagnicourt on April 15, 1917.
He was aged just 17 years and seven months –
one of the many thousands of boy soldiers
believed killed in The Great War but a figure
which will never be determined.
The Australian Army’s enlistment age was 21
years or 18 years with the permission of a
parent or guardian.
Although boys could enlist as buglers many gave
false ages in order to join as soldiers. George
Slade was one of them – a boy fighting a man’s
war, but nevertheless a hero to his family and
his country.
2012 ANZAC Day activities in the region
Desert war
remembered
70 years on
This year marks the 70th
anniversary of one of the
most significant battles for
Australian soldiers in World
War II – stopping “The
Desert Fox” Erwin Rommel’s
desperate push in North
Africa.
The First Battle of El
Alamein was fought
between Axis (German and
Italian) forces commanded
by Rommel, and Allied
forces led by General Claude
Auchinleck.
Lasting from July 1-27,
1942, the battle halted the
advance made by the Axis
into Egypt with the supplyrich Suez Canal and oilfields
its key objectives.
Three major battles
occurred around El Alamein
between July and November
1942 and were the turning
point of the war in North
Africa.
The 8th Army comprised
British, Australian, New
Zealand, South African and
Indian troops. By the end of
June, Rommel’s capture of
the Suez Canal seemed a
very real possibility.
The First Battle of El
Alamein ended in a
stalemate with a combined
total of more than 35,000
killed, wounded or captured
from both sides. In midAugust General Bernard
“Monty” Montgomery took
command of the 8th Army
which then decisively
defeated the Axis in the
Second Battle of El Alamein.
BONALBO
5.30am: Dawn Service at the
Cenotaph.
11.00am: ANZAC Commemoration
Service.
CLUNES
9.00am: Commemoration Service
at the War Memorial in the
park. Bangalow will have a
march at 10.45am from the
hotel with a service to follow at
RSL Hall.
KYOGLE
5.30am: Dawn Service at the
Cenotaph.
10.30am: March steps off from the
Memorial Baths to the Kyogle
Memorial Institute. Assemble at
10.15am.
11.00am: ANZAC Commemoration
at the Memorial Institute.
11.30am: Wreath Laying Service at
the Cenotaph.
LISMORE
5.05am: Dawn Service at the
Lismore Memorial in
Molesworth St. Form up at the
Old Post Office at 4.55am to
march off at 5am. Breakfast to
follow at Lismore Workers’
Club for Ex-service personnel
and families.
9.00am: March from Browns
Creek Car Park to the Lismore
War Memorial at the Memorial
Baths for ANZAC
Commemoration and Wreath
Laying Service. Form up at
8.30am.
MALLANGANEE
10.45am: March from Mallanganee
Memorial Hall to Memorial
Park will be followed by a
service.
MURWILLUMBAH
5.30am: Dawn Service at the War
Memorial. March off to the War
Memorial at 5.15am. Service
commences at the Memorial at
5.30am. Breakfast to follow.
10.30am: March off to the War
Memorial. Assemble at
Brisbane St at 10.15am.
10.45am: ANZAC Service
commences at the Memorial.
NIMBIN
11.00am: ANZAC Commemoration
Service at the Cenotaph.
March to form up at the
Nimbin hospital at 10.45am.
Refreshments afterwards at
the bowling club.
UKI
4.28am: Dawn Service at the Uki
War Memorial. Light breakfast
and refreshments in Uki School
of Arts Hall after ceremony.
URBENVILLE
9.30am: Church service at St
Mark’s ANZAC Memorial
Church.
10.30am: March starts in Urben St,
Town Centre, to the Memorial
Gates on Clarence Way.
11.00am: ANZAC Services at
Memorial Gates.
WOODENBONG
10.30am: March from the National
Australia Bank to the
Woodenbong Public Hall
followed by the ANZAC Service.
PLEASE NOTE: All times and venues have been supplied by various RSL Sub-branch
officials. Care has been taken to ensure as many Electorate services as possible have
been included and were correct at the time of publication. For verification of other
services please contact your local RSL Sub-branch.
Authorised by Thomas George MP. Printed by MSS Media 161 Lake Albert Rd Kooringal NSW 2650 using Parliamentary entitlements.