Mayor’s Speech - Soldier Memorial Hall Opening 9 May 2014

I would like extend a special acknowledgement and sincere thank you to the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs the Hon Damian Drum MLC for attending this very special event today.

I would like to acknowledge Kelvin Thomson MP for Wills and representatives present from Returned Services League:

1. Mr Ken White President from Glenroy RSL, 2. Mr Tom Parkinson, President of the Pascoe Vale RSL

I would also like to note the following apologies from State parliamentarians;

Craig Ondarchie MP Ms Jane Garrett MP Ms Christine Campbell MP Ms Bronwyn Halfpenny MP Councillors not in attendance

I would like to begin by paying my respects to the local indigenous people in acknowledging that we are on the traditional tribal lands of the Wurundjeri people. I offer my respects to the Elders, past and present, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Is it important to recognise many indigenous soldiers who enlisted to fight in the Great War despite at the time not being recognised in Australia.

This memorial Hall was created to remember those Brunswick men who served in the Great War, which began a century ago this year. It was unveiled by my predecessor Cr Raeburn in 1928. With him on that day to officially open the Soldiers Memorial Hall was one of Australia’s most decorated and charismatic field commanders, Major General Pompey Elliot, then a Senator for Victoria in the Federal Parliament.

It is significant that this striking tribute was paid for by the women of Brunswick in remembrance. It lists the names of 550 men who were killed and another 1900 who served and some who enlisted but did not embark before the war ended. That the last group’s names are listed here is a reminder of how bitter and divisive the conscription debate was even a decade after the war ended.

The casualty statistics from WW1 are still mind boggling even in an Australia that is many times the size it was a century ago. The names here represented roughly eight percent of the total population of Brunswick at the time. They were part of a force of 110,000 Victorian men who enlisted to serve in World War 1 – enlisted, not conscripted.

The death and casualty numbers, come the reckoning in 1918, tell a brutal story. The first global war fought with technologically advanced weapons resulted in 60,000 Australian dead and more than 150,000 wounded. Many of those who survived succumbed to their wounds both physical and mental after the war ended. Sadly Pompey Elliot was one of those later casualties who died by his own hand only a few years after opening this memorial. These days we would call it a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

What the men of Brunswick suffered on battlefields far away, and the suffering they brought home with them, is now almost beyond living memory.

These days the story of war is as often told through the eyes of ordinary soldiers as it is through the words of official historians and politicians. The real human stories of what occurred in the Great War are often just fragments.

One such fragment is the story of Len Granrott who lived at 26 Collins Street West Brunswick, whose name appears on these rolls. He was a house painter and enlisted at the age of 25 in 1916. He left behind his mother Florence and brother Jack. He served with the 38 th

Infantry Battalion on the Western Front. Even before seeing action, Leonard nearly died of pneumonia on the long journey to Europe on a troop ship.

He took part in the battle on Messines on the 7 th of June 1917. The Messines ridge overlooked the British salient at Ypres. The German troops fired gas shells at the advancing Australian infantry. Len was in the first wave of the attack which started at 3:10 am covered by a creeping artillery barrage. The 38th reached its objectives but Leonard was shot several times including once through the lung. He was sent to London to recover and eventually returned to Australia where he was discharged as medically unfit in 1918.

His was awarded the British War Medal for his service. To this day, his family treasure the small metal match box that was in his tunic pocket when hit by a German bullet. Len believed it saved his life.

Another fragment – this time from Tom Curyer who wrote to his sister Ruby Shanks at 312 Hope Street Brunswick on the 13 th of June 1915 from Rest Gully at Anzac Cove at Gallipoli. The improvised post card made from a cigarette box is part of the collection at the Australian War Memorial. Tom tells Ruby that he and his brother Charlie have just come off the firing line after five straight weeks and are looking forward to a rest. Tom soon contracted enteric fever and was repatriated to Australia in 1916. He never really recovered his health and died only a few months after this Hall was opened in 1928.

The son of a former Mayor of Brunswick is listed on these boards. Born is Brunswick in 1890, the 25 year old, Lt Joseph Rupert Balfe, was a 5th year medical student at Melbourne University and played football for Brunswick. He serviced in the 1st platoon, A company and was killed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. One of his university mates published a poem in the local papers that in part read:

“Born not of insensate madness for the fray,But rather of a spirit noble, brave,

And kindled by a heart that wept at wrong,He went.”

That mate completed his law degree and became Prime Minister of Australia; R.G. Menzies. One wonders what Lt. Balfe might have achieved had he survived the war.

On 21 January 1920, the City of Brunswick awarded 3 certificates to the family of the O’Loughlin brothers – Sydney, George and Henry. George and Henry were killed in action. The certificates state:

“He served his country in the Great War, for the sacred cause of Freedom, Liberty and Justice and thereby has earned the grateful

recognition and appreciation of his fellow citizens”

Signed by Cr Allard, Mayor of Brunswick.

Given the enormous sacrifice the community made during WW1 it is surprising that it does not occupy a great place in the national psyche. Indeed it is really only in the last 30 years that there has been a growing awareness of the cost of the war beyond the Gallipoli campaign.

For many decades it seemed as if the trauma caused by the Great War was so deep that somehow it had to be put behind us.

During the 1930’s the portico you see outside was added to the building which blocked the sunlight into this room. The Honour Boards fell into a dark gloom that has lasted until today.

I would like to thank the State Department of Planning and Community Development for the grant of nearly $10,000 for this lighting system that allows us for the first time in 80 odd years to properly see the names of those who served. Moreland matched this contribution and is looking to further restore the Honour Boards themselves during the centenary of the Great War.

The words on the plaque in this room remind us of the pain etched into the community which we should not forget.

‘Australia mourns her sons who in the full vigour of their young manhood, served their country so faithfully and with such wonderful

heroism, even unto death.’