Korean War frame and Great War roll tell the district’s stories

Brothers lost, acts of bravery and families who carried the cost of war were the stories shared by Ann Wales at two Remembrance Day unveilings in Boorowa on Wednesday 11 November. At the Boorowa War Memorial, Wales, co-author of Boorowa Remembers 1915-2015 Centenary of Service in World War I, and Boorowa RSL Subbranch Historian, delivered the Korean War tribute before Korean War veteran Geoff Lamond unveiled a frame honouring Hilton Walter Apps, John Robert Crawford, William Noel Miller and Archibald Frederick Timms. Miller and Timms also served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, and Timms served in World War II. She welcomed the families of Apps, Crawford and Timms, and Vietnam veterans Ian Crisp, Terry Lawler and Rodney Perceval. Nearly 18,000 Australians served in the Korean War, she said, and 339 died. Wales quoted a family member as saying: “Dad might have come home from the war to his family, but we paid the price to help him cope with what he saw and experienced.” Lamond enlisted in Young but has made Boorowa home for 10 years with his wife Margaret. Wales thanked him for his three years of service. At the Boorowa Ex-Services Club, Allan Stuart unveiled the World War I Nominal Roll. His father, Alf Stuart, was responsible for the original board. Wales said the roll lists 328 men and two women, including 105 names not recognised on any other roll. The Boorowa RSL Sub-Branch funded it. Since Boorowa Remembers appeared in 2015, she and co-author Di Elliott have added Private Thomas Lewis of Boorowa and Private William Henry Yeo of Frogmore, who both died in service overseas. The roll records 69 men who died, among them three Gurney brothers, Alfred, Herbert and Theodore, and pairs of brothers from the Bourke, Holmes, Mewburn and Nicholson families. It took 11 weeks for a letter to come from the front, and some mothers received letters from their sons after being told they had died. First to enlist from Boorowa, on 24 August 1914, was William Francis Dunne, later awarded the Military Medal. First to die was Jess Shaw, from wounds on 3 May 1915. He was buried at sea. Wales also told the story of Ralph Vincent Brough, known as Tobie, who embarked for overseas service in good health on 19 June 1918. Measles broke out on the voyage and Brough was among 80 cases. He was later admitted to a mental asylum in Staffordshire, England, where he died of pneumonia on 10 June 1920. Wales said ship records suggest he had what is now called encephalitis. Many names on the roll still have relatives in Boorowa, including the Bowler, Dwyer, Keefe, Grocott, Martin, Mewburn, Poole, Roberts, Stuart and Thomson families. Wales urged young people to explore the service records held online by the National Archives of Australia. Lest we forget.