Dr David Gillespie, the federal member for Lye, presented the Seaham Knitting Circle Memorial four-yard flag to Raymond Terrace RSL Sub-Branch

Dr David Gillespie, the federal member for Lye, handed the four-yard flag to the sub-branch’s Alan Earl, a retired Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Lieutenant Commander.

The sub-branch, which coordinates and conducts the Anzac Day service in Seaham, requested Dr Gillespie provide it a new Australian national flag large enough to suit the pole at the Knitting Circle memorial, which is 19m high.

The new flag, measuring 144 by 72 inches wide and tall, is a big improvement on the old one, which is said to have been so small it looked like a hankie once raised to the top of the pole.

The Knitting Circle is named after the women of the district who gathered to knit socks, vests and other items for the troops overseas in WWI.

The Seaham Knitting Circle Memorial is perhaps one of the few in the country that was dedicated to the memory of WWI soldiers, entirely by the women of the community.

The story begins in October 1914 when the Seaham branch of the Red Cross was established. 

Mrs J.W. Boag was the president and Mrs Bert Adams the secretary. From the beginning the group was known as the Seaham Knitting Circle.

Related reading: Photos from 2017 Port Stephens Anzac Day services as snapped by you

At the end of WWI the people of Seaham welcomed back their sons and mourned those lost. The first expression of remembrance was a memorial tablet in the Presbyterian Church which was unveiled in October 1920.

This was followed in May 1921 with the unveiling of the memorial gates at the School of Arts.

The Knitting Circle members met and agreed to erect a memorial flag pole on the eastern side of the river as the western side already had two memorials. 

In the latter part of 1921 the flagpole was erected on a piece of land donated by the Boag family whose residence "Burnbrae" stood behind the memorial.

In December 1921 the Seaham Knitting Circle was disbanded.

John Wilson Boag was a successful businessman closely connected to the pioneer families of the district. Two of his sons by his first wife enlisted in the AIF.

One son, William Fisher Boag, died in May 1917 in Randwick Repatriation Hospital as a result of an accident sustained in Egypt in March 1916.

The eldest son of the second marriage was killed in 1925 as the result of a buggy accident 500m from the family home.

The following poem appeared in the Raymond Terrace Examiner newspaper on October 27,1916. The author is unknown.

Come join our little knitting class

All ye who have fingers ti knit

For we must help in this great war

By doing our little bit

Our boys have donned their khaki

And proudly marched away

One by one to join their comrades

And help them in the fray

So we must work our hardest now

With busy hands and willing heart,

To make warm comforts for our boys

Who are nobly doing their part

They left their happy homes

And native land so fair,

Determined on the battle field

And though our hearts are sad

For those who have sailed away,

'tis useless to sit and weep

with folded hands all day

do not let your hands be idle

there is always something more

you can do for those brave boys,

who are fighting at the war

So pass around the invitation

Warm and welcome you will find,

For we must comfort one another,

We who are left behind

To bravely do their share.