By STEVE GRAY
WITH the approach of centenary commemorations for World War I, communities all across the nation will be delving into history to remember those who went – and those who didn’t return.
The war raged, mainly in Europe, from 1914 to 1918, but Australia’s centenary remembrance will focus on the morning of the Anzac landings, 25 April 1915.
Locally the Southern Downs will commemorate the Dungaree March, a 15-day recruitment march that left Warwick on 15 November with 28 recruits and arrived in Brisbane, 270kms away, with 125 men ready to serve.
What is sometimes overlooked is Stanthorpe’s contribution to the Dungaree March.
The day before the march left Warwick eight recruits were given a rapturous farewell from Stanthorpe.
The town’s businesses closed, schoolchildren were let out of class, members of the town band brought their instruments, and everyone headed for the Shire Hall.
“At 11.30am the crowd was very large”, reported the Border Post.
“A procession was formed, headed by the band, followed by the recruits, carrying a banner made by Mrs Spencer Roberts, bearing the words: We are from Stanthorpe. Come and join us..
A crowd several hundred strong then formed up behind the recruits and marched to the local railway station, where the eight Stanthorpe men boarded for Warwick, where the men received a great reception that night.
The next morning the Dungaree March officially started from the town, cheered on by a crowd of 3000, who “escorted them a mile or so outside the town”.
The Stanthorpe recruits were listed as Lyall Atkins, Charles Day, George Day, George Mann, HW Pierpoint, RP Bailey, A Henderson, TF Burns and T Edmonds.
Stanthorpe Museum volunteers say their fate is unknown, though none of the men are buried at Stanthorpe.
Members of the Atkins, Day, Mann and Pierpoint families still live in the district.
