WAR DIARY

A Centenary of Armistice Project by the Lilydale RSL Sub-Branch.
www.lilydalersl.com.au
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/LilydaleRSL

INTRODUCTION

The Lilydale RSL is very pleased to be able to present this website, and the extraordinary researched information it contains, as the club’s contribution to the centenary of the end of the First World War.

In 2018, after receiving a grant from the Federal Government’s Centenary of Armistice program, the club commissioned local military historian Anthony McAleer OAM, to create a project that would highlight the service of this district’s men and women during World War One.
What he created was quite unique.

Never before has a district like the former Shire of Lillydale had its Great War volunteers chronicled in this way. Here you will find a day by day account of what happened to them all and the important events that effected them. It details the moments they enlisted, when they sailed, the brave deeds they performed to receive awards, when they were wounded or hospitalised and tragically, when and how they died while on active service.

Furthermore, it also chronicles their thoughts and words, so that by using their diaries, letters and postcards, and in some cases autobiographies, they themselves describe events in historical order.

We know that the individual stories here will be of immense value to family historians, military researchers and those interested in local events.

We also believe that the strength of this project lies in the fact that by presenting this information, in this particular way, it will allow the researcher to uncover further gems of information previously unknown.

As a former serving member of the Royal Australian Navy I was proud to discover that the first to join up and to see active service were the local men who volunteered to serve in the Navy. At the same time, as a former submariner, I felt honoured that it was a local submariner who had the longest active service of all the volunteers and saddened to learn he was the district’s last fatal war casualty.

The project will also be able to answer many questions about who was the first and last, what was the district’s most fatal day, what month contains our highest volunteer rate, how many were at the landing of Anzac Cove etc.

In 2019 the Lilydale RSL will commemorate the centenary of the formation of our club, formed by many of the men and women detailed in this project. We feel this is a fine tribute to them and all of those from this district who served, suffered and died for our nation in what was meant to be the ‘war to end all wars’.

Don Parsons FRVAHJ, JP, BJ (Rtd)
President
Lilydale RSL Sub-Branch

THE PROJECT

This is a complete calendar listing of what happened to the men and women of the Shire of Lillydale during the First World War. It begins in 1911, when the first resident leaves the shire and volunteers to enlist in the Royal Australian Navy, and finished in 1920 when the last resident returns home from service overseas.

It chronicles when they enlisted, when they left for overseas, when they were wounded or admitted to hospital, brave deeds they performed, their involvement in notable battles, those that died while on active service and when they returned home.

This is the first time such a large Australian community has had it’s volunteers studied in such a way and in such detail.

THE SHIRE OF LILLYDALE

During World War One (1914 – 1918) the Shire of Lillydale (spelt with double L) covered a wide ranging area of the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges. At this time, the shire included the townships of Croydon and Ringwood but these haven’t been included in this study. Instead this study has stuck to the geographical boundaries of the Shire of Lillydale as they were in 1994, when the shire ceased to exist and was amalgamated into the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

That is with two notable exemptions – Wonga Park and Monbulk. Both of these townships have detailed histories written on their local volunteers.
See:
Monbulk – www.monbulkhistoricalsociety.org.au/9-publications/20-monbulk-s-world-war-i-diggers
Wonga Park: regimental-books.com.au/from-orchards-to-trenches-wonga-park-and-her-diggers-in-world-war-i8207-p-4571.html

Therefore the Shire of Lillydale townships represented in this study include:
Lilydale (spelt with one L)
Coldstream
Yering
Gruyere
Wandin
Seville
Silvan
Mt Evelyn
Mooroolbark
Kilsyth
Montrose
Kalorama
Mt Dandenong
Olinda

THOSE LISTED

What constitutes inclusion in this study can sometimes seem widespread. Traditionally those included in local World War One lists or studies have included those volunteers who were born in the area or resident in the area before they enlisted – not after.

However as we have also included in this study those listed on local honour boards or memorials – the traditional definition of who should go on such a tribute can often be expanded.

For example it may include someone who worked in the area but not lived in the area or it may include a nephew who came up every summer to help their aunt and uncle on their farm but lived elsewhere.

In short the names that went on these memorials 100 years ago were people that that particular township felt were part of their community. Therefore we feel committed to honouring that – even if there is no record on their official attestation papers of the township that honoured them.

SOURCES

The names listed in the project have come from a variety of sources.

* Local War Memorials – cenotaphs, avenues of honour, plaques
* Honour Boards – Shire of Lillydale Honour Board, township honour boards, State school honour boards, community groups honour boards, church honour boards.
* Newspapers – notably The Lilydale Express but also others through Trove
* Local history files and historical societies research.
* Local history publications and others – including the All Australian Memorial.
* The AIF Project – https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/index.html
* The Australian War Memorial – https://www.awm.gov.au/
* The Lilydale & District Historical Society’s – They Answered The Call – http://www.lilydalehistorical.com.au/they_answered_the_call_WWI.htm
* National Archives of Australia – http://www.naa.gov.au/
* Archives New Zealand – http://archives.govt.nz/world-war-one

AUTHOR

A J McAleer OAM has been researching the stories of volunteers from the Shire of Lillydale in World War One for the past thirty years. In that time he has helped to create 62 local memorials and has written and published 19 books including the following:

The Shire of Lillydale and its Military Heritage – Vol 1: The Colonial Years
The Shire of Lillydale and its Military Heritage – Vol 2: The First World War
The Shire of Lillydale and its Military Heritage – Vol 3: The Second World War
Lilydale Icon – The Story of Lilydale’s Athenaeum Building – Vol 1-3
We Did But See Her Pass By – The Queen’s 1954 Visit through Lilydale
The Last Light Horseman – The Joe Clark Story
Monash’s Militia Camp – Lilydale, February 1914
A Stretcher Bearer’s War – The Story of Ralph Goode MBE
Great Courage and Initiative – The Heroic Life of George Ingram VC, MM
La Terra Promessa – Italians in the Yarra Valley Before 1945
Seventeen Year Old Soldier – Jim Baddeley Recalls His Great War
J D Burns – Schoolboy, Soldier, Poet, Martyr
Scurry – The Man Who Got Them Safely off Gallipoli
‘My Boys’ – A Book of Remembrance by Mrs Aeneas Gunn (Ed)
The Vagabond in the Yarra Valley (Ed)
‘Who Wouldn’t Be a Soldier?’ – WW1 Diaries of Sgt Thomas Dykes DCM (Ed)
Yarra Valley Vietnam Veterans – Tell Their Story

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project was made possible as a result of grant funding from the Armistice Centenary Grants Program (ACGP), Department of Veterans Affairs, Australian Government.

The ACGP is for local community-based projects and activities that commemorate the end of the First World War, remembering Australian service men and women from all conflicts and celebrate a just and secure peace.
The Commonwealth has not participated in the research, production or exercised editorial control over the activity or its contents. The views expressed and conclusions reached herein do not necessarily represent those of the Commonwealth which expressly disclaims any responsibility for the content or accuracy of the activity.

DETAILS

This study is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the written permission of the author.

Website by Joy Phillips, Feral Art