Barraba remembers some of our WW1 losses

29th October 2024

History Notes

Just one more History Notes before the clock celebrations - are we ready? The Historical members are busy tracking down soldier photos and their stories to exhibit during the weekend. At this stage there are a number of items missing but they are likely to be in storage. The markets are also on the "Clock Weekend" so a busy time for everyone in the next few weeks.

Quite a lot of Barraba district families had more than one family member serving in World War One - names such as Blackall, Booth, Cheesbrough, Faddy, Hagan, Halloran, Jones, Myers, Newton, Sherwood, Spencer, Tempest, and Wallace appear more than once on the Honour Roll at the Church of England as serving and returning home at the end of the war. Some of these names also appear in the 30 names listed in the Lives Laid Down column. Those who did not return have their names on the clock.

There were three Spencer sons from Nangarah in France. Harold paid the supreme price and his brothers came home although Les could easily have become a casualty. A newspaper report relates his story as he told in a letter to his mother- "one night while I was off duty and sound asleep in the reserve trench, the side of the trench fell in on top of me, completely covering me - I could not move a muscle, and it took two or three minutes to dig me out".

When the men got him out, he could not move his lower body and they had to carry him down to the doctor and he was evacuated to Egypt. Fortunately, he recovered and returned-to Nangarah and later ran his own property.

Another soldier, Sidney Witten, was in charge of a Lewis Gun towards the end of the war. Sadly, he was gassed and the family were at the time told that he was taken to casualty but it was six long weeks before they were told that he had died the next day.

Among the soldiers enlisting for the 1914/18 World War in the Barraba district were men working in the district- Private Ashby for instance was born at Walgett and Bloxham was working at the Horton when he enlisted. Then there were some that went to Sydney to enlist and they had a chance of being missed on memorials in later years.

Anyway, we remember them all on 11th November, 2024.

News for October 2024