Barraba Legacy celebrates 75 years

Barraba Legacy contact group was formed following the formation of Tamworth Legacy in 1948, with Col Clifton as Chairman, to carry on the work of Tamworth Legacy in providing care and support for the widows and families of veterans who had given their lives on operational service, specifically in World Wars 1 and 11 at that time. This later expended to include the dependents of those veterans of all subsequent conflicts. You had to be invited to join Legacy and you served a probationary period of 12 months. I was honoured to be invited to join Legacy in 1972 by Legatee Bob Longton and was inducted in 1973 with Ted O’Leary Chair and Murray Chapman secretary. In those days we have to apply to Tamworth to issue fields of service and we generally had 6 Legatees to look after the 43 widows and their families we had at that time.

We tried to ensure that our widow’s children were looked after in regard to school uniforms, shoes etc and we would support widows with house repairs and maintenance. We occasionally went on bus trips to places such as Copeton, Split Rock and Keepit Dams, movies in Tamworth or even trips for lunch at local farms. The Barraba and Upper Horton Pony Clubs would invite Legacy wards to participate in their pony cams and provide quiet horses for these children to ride, some children coming from Sydney and Newcastle.

Ted O’Leary was chairman from 1965 to 1993, serving 28 years as chair but remained in Legacy till 2006, 55 years of service, while Murray Chapman remained secretary from 1963-1998, 35 years of service. Peter Milson and Harold Faint joined Legacy in 1974. Peter giving 20 years of service and Harold served for 6 years as chairman 1993-1999 and gave 29 years of service. Robert Sweeney became a Legatee in 1995 and was the driving force behind our wood cutting excursions, when we would spend all weekend cutting wood for our widows. Barry Fenn and Adrienne Hancock became Legatees in 2000, Barry spending many years as secretary/treasurer, while Adrienne, our first female Legatee has been invaluable to our group. Peter Hancock joined us after retiring as Captain of the Fire Brigade and is a great asset.

In all that time we have had great support from the Barraba community, I would particularly like to mention the Barraba RSL Club where we held our meetings for many years and David Kelly who audited our books until they were taken over by Tamworth and who is our MC today. Philip Hodges and David Witten continue to support our formal functions and never let us down and the Barraba clergy have always been available to assist us, particularly the Anglican Ministers and we are most grateful for their support.

We are indeed honoured to have Lorne O’Leary and Rosemary Milson here today, both wives of long-serving Legatees, and we Legatees indeed owe a great debt to our wives and partners. I well remember Lorne and Nug Faint trying to outdo each other cooking cakes for our street stall, sometimes 40 cakes each, ably supported by Bessie Baldwin and Eileen Chapman. Trixie Garland was notorious in selling Legacy Badges during Legacy Week, never allowed anyone to pass without purchasing a badge. I would like to thank my wife, Judy, for her continued support over the years and Rob’s wife Kim as well as their children, Chris, Nick and Katie.                                       Bill Crowley