'WW1 - Love and Sorrow' Exhibition at Museum Victoria

The honour board at Museum Victoria, originally from the Newmarket Saleyards.

 Last week I visited Museum Victoria to see the two WW1 Exhibitions showing there - 'WW1 -Love and Sorrow', which is the Museum's own exhibition, and the one from the Imperial War Museum, the 'WW1 Centenary Exhibition'.  The latter will close on 4 October.

The Love and Sorrow exhibition is the story of eight individuals, told most poignantly with photographs, documents and relics. 

The honour board at the Pakenham Saleyards.

On the way out of the exhibition I was quite surprised to see the memorial board for the Stock and Station Agents of Melbourne, which I had thought to be located at the Pakenham Saleyards.  But on further enquiry it turns out that there were two honour boards.  The board that used to be at Newmarket Saleyards is the one now held at Museum Victoria. 

Deborah Tout-Smith, a senior curator at Museum Victoria, has pointed out that the ram's head at the top of each board appears to have been carved by a different artist.

The Museum is seeking further information on this board, and is also collaborating with the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) to seek out further information about honour boards commemorating the Public Sector.  See the Museum website for a more detailed request for help from the public.

The men named on the Associated Stock & Station Agents of Melbourne board who lived in Essendon and Flemington are detailed on the Empire Called and I Answered wepage.

Stories from the Supreme Court of Victoria Memorial Board

In the entrance to the Supreme Court in William Street Melbourne, there is a memorial board commemorating 158 lawyers and solicitors who served in the Great War.  In a commemorative project, the stories of those men have been put together in an online memorial.  The names are from right round Victoria as well as metropolitan Melbourne.  It includes, for instance,  Hugh Gordon Morrow of Ballarat and an old school friend Lt Col Harold  E Elliott.

Not many Essendonians are included, but one local on the board is  William Thomas Snowden.

There are many well-known names on the board, and a browse through them may be rewarding.

St George's Anglican Church, Travancore WW1 commemoration

I saw this on the Flemington-Kensington News Facebook:

"In commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, St George's Anglican Church, Travancore will read the Roll of Honour of the parish participants in the conflicts of 1914 - 1918 during the 9.30am service on 3 August 2014. Family members of combatants whose names appear on the Honour Roll are invited to attend and stay for morning tea after the service".  

 The original St George's Church, at the time of the war, was located in Manningham St, Parkville, so the parishioners on the Roll of Honour include men (and one woman) from Carlton, Parkville, Flemington, Kensington, and North Melbourne.

Flemington-Kensington Presbyterian Church

Courtesy of The Reverend Phillip Court, St Stephens Presbyterian Church, Flemington.

A very lucky find is a photograph of the Honour Boards installed in the Flemington-Kensington Presbyterian Church in 1917.  Follow the link to discover who these young men were.

St Thomas' Grammar School Cadets, c 1910

St Thomas' Grammar School Cadets, circa 1910, taken by Ruth Hollick.  Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria Collection.  H2004.61/235

The large dead River Red Gum covered in ivy in the background towards the right of the photo was the "Burke & Wills Tree", which stood on Mt Alexander Rd near the Moonee Ponds Bowls Club, Queen's Park.  Many of the boys in this photo would join the 1st AIF a few years later.  The Roll of Honour of the St Thomas' Grammar Boys, and the Carlton College boys (which had merged with St Thomas' Grammar) is now located in the Junior School of Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School.  The names of those who served can be found on the Empire Called website.

The Burke and Wills tree marked the site of the first camping spot of the expedition after it left Royal Park in 1860.

MUIOOF Loyal Albert Lodge

Elizabeth Street, Moonee Ponds is on the far left of the MMBW plan dated 1904. Source:  State Library of Victoria, http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/125450

 

 

Members of the Loyal Albert Lodge of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows arranged a roll of honour of their members who volunteered for the war.  Although the whereabouts of the board is not known, it can be seen in the background of photos in the Essendon Hist. Society collection, taken inside the hall.  For the full list go here.

Northern Golf Club Roll of Honour

The Roll of Honour at the Northern Golf Club, Glenroy, of which 

many Essendon and Flemington men were members.  Photo courtesy 

of the Northern Golf Club, 2013.

The Northern Golf Club had its origins with the Essendon Golf Club which commenced in 1896 on rented paddocks in Essendon, but in 1912 a meeting of members decided to form a land company to buy land of their own.   In 1913 a new club was formed, including members from the Essendon, Moreland, and Royal Melbourne Clubs.  The Opening Day was held on 24 April 1913, the centenary of which is fast approaching.  Those members which have been identified as being from the Essendon and Flemington areas can be found on this page.

St Paul's Church of England, Ascot Vale - Honour Roll

A page for the volunteers who were members of St Paul's Church of England in Roxburgh St, Ascot Vale, has been loaded onto the webpage and can be accessed here.

The former Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Kensington

In the 1970s the Holy Trinity church building was sold.  The Honour Board disappeared around this time and probably won't be seen again.  Does anyone have access to any photos or lists of names from that Honour Board?  Please get in touch if you know anything.

UPDATE:  I am compiling a list of volunteers known to have been associated with Holy Trinity.

St Thomas Grammarians and Carlton Collegians Honour Board

This board records the "Old Boys" of St Thomas' Grammar and Carlton College.  It is now located in the junior school of Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, Raleigh St, Essendon.   The names on the board are listed here, and identifications are being made progressively.

North Essendon Methodist Church Roll of Honour

This board hung in a church in Mt Alexander Rd, North Essendon, now closed.

See identifications here (progressively putting up individual pages for these volunteers).

Northern Golf Club, Glenroy

It turns out that the Northern Golf Club in Glenroy has or had an honour board with many Essendon members included. The list was included in the back of their history.  If anyone knows if the board is hanging at the Golf Club I would be glad to know.  A photograph of it would be even better.

The Roll of Honour for the Cordite Factory is now stored at Melbourne's Living Museum of the West.  Many of themen listed on the board lived in Ascot Vale, across the river from the Factory.

The board has some incredibly detailed wood carving.

State Library of Victoria

This board is located in the enquiry area of the La Trobe Library of the State Library of Victoria.

Not strictly relevant to my own line of enquiry, but I was there, the board was there, the camera was in my bag- so here it is.

Essendon Baptist Church Roll of Honour

This singularly unattractive Honour Board turned up as a postcard on eBay a year or so ago.  The seller managed to identify it as an Essendon board, presumably having looked at the service records of several of the volunteers to see where they were from.  From my own database I could see that they were all baptists, and they lived in the vicinity of the Baptist Church in Buckley Street, Essendon.  An enquiry at that church revealed that the board was removed some years ago, current whereabouts not known.  I believe this board belonged to that church.
The names have been transcribed and linked to service records (where I have got to that section of the alphabet) on the Empire Called website.

As you can see there is nothing connecting the board to the Essendon Baptist Church, so do let me know if you think it belonged to another church.

Patriotic Concert, 8th September 1914

The departure of a contingent of young men with the Australian Imperial Expeditionary Force was a cause for celebration in Essendon, and the volunteers were treated to a concert in the Town Hall, and presented with a program recording their names.

The program features the badge and colours of the local Citizens Military Force Battalion, the 58th Battalion.  The artwork may have been prepared by Mayor Goldsworthy himself, who was a graphic artist.  Goldsworthy designed, made and presented the first Honour Boards honouring the "Boys of Essendon" which were hung in the Essendon Town Hall.

Harold Brocklebank Herbert, artist and designer

It appears that the designer of the MMTB Roll of Honour was a young artist of growing reputation, who became well-known as a water-colourist and draughtsman.  In 1922 he toured abroad, including the Middle East, and his art shows were well-patronised.  In 1941 he was appointed as a War Artist to accompany troops to the Middle East. The illustration above dates from that appointment, and was included in the book Active Service: with Australia in the Middle East. He returned after a few months saying that he felt younger artists would be more suitable.  He had struggled in the hot temperatures with the heat drying out his water-colours too quickly.  Herbert died in 1945 aged only 52 "after a long illness", so one might surmise that he had been unwell during his time with the 2nd AIF.

Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board Roll of Honour 2

Recourse to the online Argus has revealed that the M&MTB Roll of Honour was unveiled in 1921, as below:

TRAMWAYS HONOUR ROLL.
Unveiled by the Premier.
The Premier (Mr. Lawson) unveiled yesterday
the board at the offices of the Melbourne and
Metropolitan Tramway Board erected in honour
of 518 tramway men who enlisted, 71 of whom
fell on service abroad, and 18 of whom received
awards for conspicuous gallantry.
The board is of artistic design in black-
wood, and is erected on the main stair
way to the administrative offices.
It was designed by Mr. H. B. Herbert

In the presence of members of the board
and officers of the administrative staff, Mr.
Lawson unveiled the memorial. The
record of their services, he said, showed
that tram waymen, who spent their lives
in giving public service, had done valiantly in ren-
dering the greatest of all services on foreign fields.
The memorial would stand for all time to remind
us that only by living up to the ideals for which
these brave men died could we achieve the fruits
of the victory they had won. Germany had lost
the war, but stood to win the subsequent eco-  
nomic conflict if we by our indifference and
neglect, and our division into sects and factions,
failed to remain steadfast to those ideals of
courage, loyalty, and truth.  

The Argus 9 November 1921
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4622851

See the board referred to here.

UPDATE
It seems likely that H B Herbert was the Melbourne artist Harold Brocklebank Herbert.  The MMTB offices in 1921 were at 673 Bourke St (south side) between Godfrey and King Street. (Thanks to Jenny Coates for her kind assistance.)

Essendon Tram Depot WW1 Roll of Honour

At present the whereabouts of the Roll of Honour which is presumed to have existed at the Depot of the North Melbourne and Essendon Tramways and Electric Light Company is not known.

I have attempted to re-create that Roll of Honour with the names of the men in my database who had tramways related occupations.

If any other local men are known to have worked with the NMET& EL Co, I would be very interested to hear of it.

UPDATE:  Information from a reliable source suggests that some of the occupations - gripman and motorman - related to cable trams, which in 1915 were still operating between the city and Flemington Bridge, where they met the NMET&L trams.  The list on the website is therefore probably not exclusive to the NMET&L Co.

Essendon Tram Depot WW2 Roll of Honour

This board is also located at the Malvern Tramways Museum.  There did not appear to be an Essendon WW1 Board, but I would think there was one. If anyone knows of the whereabouts of an Essendon WW1 board, I would be pleased to know - maybe it got overlooked and is still at the Essendon Depot?