World War 1 Memorial's to the Fallen

Collie War Memorial - Soldier's Park

Collie War Memorial commemorates Australian servicemen and women who have served in all wars and conflicts. Originally erected to commemorate the fallen of World War One, the memorial is a tall stone cenotaph which sits upon a four-tiered base and a bronze wreath is affixed to the cenotaph with inscribed plaques on the lower part of each face.  The cenotaph is located in a landscaped park with rose beds and hedging with a pathway leading from the gateway to the cenotaph.

Official Opening

On the 15 May 1921, the Governor Sir Francis Newdegate laid the foundation stone of the Collie Fallen Soldiers' Memorial in the presence of Lady Newdegate, Minister for Works Mr W. J. George, Leader of the State Opposition Mr P. Collier, the Bishop of Bunbury Rev Cecil Wilson, returned soldiers and a large assembly of residents. During his speech the Governor noted that 1200 men had enlisted from the Collie district, of whom 400 had been wounded and 120 were killed. The Collie War Memorial was officially unveiled on Sunday 4 September 1921 by the Governor Sir Francis Newdegate.

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WW1 MEMORIAL PLAQUE & SCROLL - ‘DEAD MAN’S PENNY’

The WW1 Memorial Plaque is a commemorative medallion which was presented to the next-of-kin of the servicemen and women of the British Empire, whose deaths were attributable to the First World War.

The bronze medallion features an image of Lady Britannia surrounded by two dolphins (symbolising British sea power) and a Lion (representing Britain) standing over a defeated Eagle (representing Germany). The outer edge of the medallion has stamped the words ‘He died for freedom and honour’. Next to Lady Britannia is the deceased soldier’s name, with no rank, to show equality in their sacrifice. The medallion was made of Bronze and hence the popular calling   ‘Dead Man’s Penny’, (similarity to the penny coin).  1,355,000 medallions were struck, using a total of 450 tonnes of bronze. In Australia, the first plaques were distributed in 1922.

The medallion was accompanied by a Scroll from King George V. The Scroll was headed by the royal coat- of- arms, and bore the following message; “He whom this scroll commemorates was numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those that come after see to it that his name be not forgotten”.

The serviceman or woman’s name, rank, honours and unit were written by hand in red ink underneath the message.

A message from the King was included with the scroll, it read; “I join with my grateful people in sending you this memorial of a brave life given for others in the Great War”.

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YPRES (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 17), Belgium

The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the Campaign. Inside the Arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men including 6,178 Australians (14 of these were Collie Boys), who served and died in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave.

The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted ‘The Menin Gate at Midnight’, which portrays a ghostly Army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the city of Ypres in 1936.

Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the city of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

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"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them."

‘LEST WE FORGET’

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