ON August 4, 1914, Australia’s Prime Minister Joseph Cook told an election rally at Horsham: “If the old country is at war, so are we”.
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And with those words, Australia entered World War I and over the next four years made a sacrifice to the war effort unparalled in the British Empire in terms of dead and wounded per head of population.
Wagga, and indeed the Riverina, was quick to answer the call to arms.
Scores had enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force by the end of August.
According to information obtained by the Museum of the Riverina, about 2000 men with some connection to Wagga had volunteered by the time the Armistice was signed on November, 11, 1918.
“For some of these men, Wagga was the place of employment or adopted home town,” the exhibition says.
“For others, it was simply where they enlisted.
“The majority, however, were born and bred in the district.”
The stories of some of the men who enlisted are included in the exhibition, called He Belonged To Wagga – Our Anzac Story (1914-19).
It is now on display in the Museum of the Riverina’s Botanic Gardens site.
Curator Michelle Maddison has compiled more than 50 stories so far, and the list is growing.
To mark the centenary of WWI and to honour the service of our service men and women, The Weekend Advertiser each week will publish a story from the exhibition.
We will also relive the course of the war as it was covered in the pages of The Daily Advertiser.
Germans Enter Brussels | POPULATION PANIC STRIKEN | EXCESSES BY THE TROOPS FEARED. LONDON, Friday - ‘The Times’ announces that the Germans have entered Brussels. The population is panic-striken, believing that the troops will indulge in excesses.
'BRAVE LITTLE BELGIANS' | STILL FULL OF FIGHT | RESISTANCE IN BRUSSELS MEANS MASSACRE. The military correspondent of the ‘The Times’, referring to the German forward move says ‘The brave little Belgian army is still almost intact and available for pending operations. It will require two or three German army corps to keep it quiet.
The entry of the Germans into Brussels will make a great clatter in the German press, but we can afford to remain completely indifferent. There is no glory in entering an undefended capital.
A correspondent who has just returned from Brussels, says that any resistance by the citizens to the Germans now in the capital might end in massacre, because everything goes to show the invaders are fighting with appalling ruthlesness.
RED CROSS MOVEMENT | AT CULCAIRN. CULCAIRN, Thursday - The Red Cross movement has been taken up most enthusiastically in Culcairn. The matter originated first with the senior girls of the public school, under Mrs J B Ryan. The parents then offered to assist and a committee was formed, with Mrs J H Heily as president, Misses E M Cary and E M Wheatley hon secretaries, and Mrs 0 M Evershed as hon treasurer. An afternoon tea was given on Thursday at the School of Arts and the building was full of noble women hard at work providing comforts for our soldiers. The hall was nicely decorated with flags and wattle, for which Mesdames Heily, Fowler and Evershed were mainly responsible. Nearly everyone in town sent donations in money or woollen socks, flannel or flannelette. The latter was made into garments, machines having been provided by patriot citizens.
THE GERMAN ATTACK. | REGARDLESS OF SLAUGHTER. | THE OCCUPATION OF TIRLEMONT. LONDON, Friday - It’s reported that the German troops advanced towards Brussels absolutely: regardless of slaughter. Though losing heavily, they threw great masses of men forward, and forged their way by sheer weight of numbers. The bombardment and capture of Tirlemont was effected with such celerity that they barely gave the civil inhabitants time to escape. Many people fled under the fire of the German guns and the thrusts of the German lances.
Fearful Outrages | CHARGES AGAINST GERMAN SOLDIERY. | INCREDIBLE STORIES OF FIENDISH BRUTALITY PARIS, Friday - An official message received in Paris states that German troops murdered eleven persons at Badon Villiers, on the French frontier, about 20 miles from Strasburg, including the wife of the mayor. They also burned 78 houses and killed five persons at Bremcuil, in the same district, including a man and a woman 74 years of age.
BRUSSELS, Friday – The Mayor of Linstneau, near Tirlemont, declares that shocking atrocities were perpetrated by Gernlan Hussars. One officer belonging to the latter was shot by a Belgian patrol, and when the men of his regiment entered the town they accused the civilians of hooting them. They shot the villagers as spies, and murdered another man and his wife.
