Backward Glance: The tears of war – Remembrance Day

When communication reached Australia that from 11am on November 11, 1918, the hostilities between Germany and Great Britain and her allies was over and an Armistice was signed, the Moreton Sugar Mill whistle sounded in celebration.

Fires were lit on the top of the Glass House Mountains as a jubilant community realised that at last the horror was over.

As the small towns of the North Coast region grieved for the loss of so many of their fine young Australians, the “Great War” that had raged from 1914 to 1918 ceased.

Australia had recruited almost 417,000 men and women for the Australian Imperial Forces and sent more than 330,000 on active service to the battlefields of Gallipoli and the Western Front.

There were mixed emotions when young men and women told their loved ones they were enlisting to go to war.

Most Australians accepted the cause, but many also lamented the situation.

Australians at home kept in touch with their loved ones by post.

Huge consignments of parcels and mail were sent from Australia to the front.

Royal Mail Ships made the journey between Australia and England, taking about a month to reach the troops.

On several occasions, the mail was lost as ships were torpedoed and sank.

Troops waited weeks and sometimes months as letters often followed the soldier from camps to hospitals and then back again.

Censorship of mail sent by the troops prevented those at home knowing much at all of what was happening.

All too often a telegram arrived to tell a family their loved one had been killed in action or was missing.

One of the worst days was in 1916 when the 5th Battalion attacked at Fromelles on July 19 and Australia lost 5533 soldiers.

By 1916, recruiting officers were becoming desperate for new recruits.

In April of that year, soldiers and nurses in Egypt, France and Britain marked the first anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli. No one could anticipate what was to follow.

One hundred years ago, 22,000 Australians died at war during 1917, more than in any other year in Australian history.

Sergeant Eric Foote MM was killed in action on September 13, 1916.

Eric’s mother Violet had waited to hear from him for so long and had written from her Buderim Mountain home to the Red Cross in London for news of his whereabouts.

Unaware of his death, she was to be notified nine months later.

On the eastern slopes of Buderim there is a reminder of the grief of Violet Foote and her family.

A sanctuary which covers nine hectares of land was given to the public by the Foote family in memory of their son Eric.

A young Ernest Martin, aged 16, of Booroobin lied about his age, spent time in action in 1916 in France, but was told on by his cousin and sent packing back to Australia.

His brothers Fred and Tom had enlisted and he wanted to be there too.

He enlisted again at 18 and once experiencing his first battle at Passchendaele, he was quoted as saying, “What the hell did I come back for, to this?”

His brother, Tom, was killed in action and he and his brother Ernest were wounded before the war ended.

The three Glass House Mountains Gilvear brothers rest in cemeteries in France as does their friend, Private Henry Boyd Laxton of Mooloolah, who was a member of the 26th Battalion.

Private Tom Laxton of the 41st Battalion was a teamster, also from Mooloolah, died of his wounds in 1917, as did another family member, John Laxton, aged 30 years.

The 9th Battalion’s Stephen Burton of Landsborough, left the shores of Queensland on board the ship Omrah on September 24, 1914 aged 19.

Described as a “steady sober young man”, he was killed at Gallipoli in 1915.

The Omrah is remembered as being the first ship to take the first contingent of Queensland’s 9th Battalion to Egypt.

Omrah departed the wharves at Pinkenba with her troops in September 1914 but was torpedoed and sank off Sardinia in May 1918.

Private William Ford, a farmer from Eudlo, enlisted with the AIF on May 15, 1916 aged 24 years.

He served with the 3/41st Infantry Battalion, leaving from Brisbane for overseas service aboard the HMAT Clan McGillivray on September 7, 1916.

William was killed in action in France on August 12, 1918.

He was one of four children of Ada and John William Ford, pioneer settlers of Ilkley.

His younger brother, Private Arthur Ford, served with the 7th Queensland Reinforcements and was discharged on January 6, 1919.

During the war years, official casualty lists filled the memorial columns in local newspapers, including the Nambour Chronicle and the Brisbane Courier Mail.

During World War I, Australia lost more than 60,000 soldiers, mostly in battle in the prime of their life.

There were also more than 226,000 wounded in the terrible fighting.

Approximately one in five who embarked from Australian shores died during those dark days.

News of the cessation of war caused wild jubilation as families and patriotic volunteer workers took to the streets of our little county towns.

The war was over at last, but thousands would have to wait in foreign lands for months to return home due to the shortage of shipping.

The AIF nurses cared for the injured and convalescing casualties during the voyage home to Australia.

All around the Sunshine Coast in towns great and small, there are honour boards, statues and memorial halls emblazoned with the words “Lest We Forget”.

In Eumundi, Montville and Beerburrum there are rows of memorial trees now grown tall to remind us of the costs of war.

Many of the injured and battle weary, fatigued in mind and body, came home changed in ways no one else could understand.

They gave so much for their country and so we remember them and those who were left behind in foreign soil.

Lest We Forget.

In commemoration of Remembrance Day, residents can head to Sunshine Coast Council’s Beerwah and Maleny Libraries for exhibitions providing an insight into this significant day in our history.

For more details visit council’s library website and search exhibitions.

Thanks to Sunshine Coast Council’s Heritage Library Officers for the words and Picture Sunshine Coast for the images.

_In 2017 we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Naming of the Sunshine Coast. For more information on this milestone anniversary visit www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/fifty_

Image captions:

Hero image: Maleny and district celebrate the end of World War 1, ca 1918.

Carousel Images:

Image 1: Buderim Red Cross Society farewelling Roy Burnett, Buderim, 1914.

Image 2: Independent Order of Rechabites float in Peace Day procession at Nambour, 1918.

Image 3: Private Arthur Burkin of Eudlo manning a machine gun during World War I.

Image 4: Maleny Red Cross members gathered in Maleny Township after Armistice Day celebrations, ca 1919.