WHEN World War I was declared in 1914, Karuah’s small community rallied around the men who enlisted to fight.
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The community was so supportive it held “big functions” to send each man, whether he was of European or Aboriginal decent, off to war, historian Benita Parker said.
“There was a lot of town involvement,” Mrs Parker, a life member of the Karuah History Group, said.
“War seemed to be one of the things that really brought the town together. It didn’t matter if you were black or white, you were sent off and welcomed back home.”
Mrs Parker and the history group spent two years researching the town’s WWI history and the lives of the men from Karuah and surrounds such as Swan Bay and Limeburners Creek who enlisted.
An Anzac grant, secured by the Karuah RSL Sub-Branch, helped the group turn its research into a WWI centenary commemoration booklet.
The booklet contains information that could be found on each of the servicemen, and the Karuah war memorial.
Of the 24 names etched on Karuah’s war memorial, 11 are described as having a “dark complexion” or being Aboriginal.
There are a further 22 names, men from the district, that are not listed on the memorial.
Of these men, half were described as having a “dark complexion”.
According to the Australian War Memorial, Aboriginality was rarely noted on a soldier’s papers.
Often just a description specifying dark complexion, dark hair, or brown eyes was entered.
Of the 46 men from Karuah and surrounds that went to war, eight were killed in action.
“About two-thirds of the names didn’t create a problem,” Mrs Parker said.
“They were easy to find through their war records.
“Some others though took oodles of time trying to find them.”
Often it was record keeping that led to problems in finding information.
Mrs Parker found that there are four Knight brothers listed on Swan Bay’s honour roll but only two are on Karuah’s war memorial.
However, further digging found that only three went to war.
A B. Marr is listed on the Karuah memorial, however it was Bert’s brother, Harold Maher, that went to war.
Harold was a 22 year old labourer when he enlisted in 1916. He was discharged as medically unfit in 1919.
The hardest name to find information on was Jack Milton, Mrs Parker said.
“Of all the men whose names are on the memorial this man has to be the most elusive,” she said.
“There is plenty of evidence he went to war and was wounded three times, but there is absolutely no record of him going to war.”
Mr Milton described himself as a “half-caste” in a letter published in the Raymond Terrace Examiner and Lower Hunter and Port Stephens Advertiser on March 23, 1923.
The letter, which appears in Karuah History Group’s booklet, refuted the claim that there had been an attack in the town he had lived for 25 years by “colored people”.
Aboriginal Enlistees, Australian War Memorial:
Albert Victor Johnson
Service Number: 4574
Rank: Private
Unit: 45th Australian Infantry Battalion
Service: Australian Imperial Force
Conflict / Operation: First World War, 1914-1918
Conflict eligibility date: First World War, 1914-1921
Date of death: 23 February 1917
Place of death: France
Cause of death: Killed in action
Age at death: 26
Place of association: Karuah, New South Wales, Australia
Cemetery or memorial details: Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France
Source: AWM145 Roll of Honour cards, 1914-1918 War, Army
Albert Lilley Knight
Service Number: 1665
Rank: Private
Unit: 55th Australian Infantry Battalion
Service: Australian Army
Conflict / Operation: First World War, 1914-1918
Conflict eligibility date: First World War, 1914-1921
Date of death: 27 April 1918
Place of death: France
Cause of death: Killed in action
Age at death: 20
Place of association: Karuah, New South Wales, Australia
Cemetery or memorial details: Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Daours, Picardie, France
Source: AWM145 Roll of Honour cards, 1914-1918 War, Army
Harold Howard Maher
Birth date: 1894
Birth place: Australia: New South Wales, Karuah
Final rank: Private
Service number: 6551 - First World War, 1914-1918
Unit: 20th Australian Infantry Battalion