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Boorowa Remembrance Day

Member for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke, with Boorowa RSL Sub-Branch member Dean Franklin, Boorowa RSL Sub-Branch President Alan Banks and NSW Police Commissioner, Karen Webb at the Boorowa War Memorial.

 

The Boorowa community came together at the war memorial on Monday to commemorate Remembrance Day.

Dean Franklin is Vice President of Boorowa RSL Sub-Branch and is also a veteran having done 20 years in the Air Force.

“The schools always come to the Boorowa service. I did the intro and then I called up one of the local clergies and they said a prayer. The High School read out ‘In Flanders Field’ and then I read out a letter from the front from a Boorowa World War One veteran and then we had a minute’s silence,” he said.

“The big thing about Remembrance Day here this week was the opening of the new Honour Board at the Services Club.

 

 

“We had Steph Cooke there and the NSW Police Commissioner there and she unveiled the board and that was followed by a lunch.

“We also had a couple of guest speakers. We had Anne Wales, who is one of our RSL members and our historian and she got all the names for the board and she invited Lynette Silver, AM, MBE, and she has done a lot of work for veterans in Australia and in Britain and she got her MBE this year for services to the veteran community and she is an historian researcher.

“Lynette spoke about military research.

“Boorowa Remembers” a book that was put together in 2015 to mark the centenary of service in World War I, which listed the majority of World War I veterans and that was done by Anne Wales and Di Elliott.

 

 

“Di Elliott passed a few years ago and one of her research projects she was working on was a book about her father who was a prisoner of war in Changi and Burma.

“Lynette Silver finished that book and it is called ‘At War With My Father’.

She talked about his journey and what he had done on the Burma railway and Changi prison and how he came back to Australia.

“We had the Commissioner talk a little bit about her family history and then she opened the honour board and we then had lunch.

“It was a great day held at the clock tower.

 

 

“The way I look at it, you can look at the amount of attention that is put on both.

Anzac Day there’s a day off nationally. The NSW Premier has just announced that from Anzac Day next year everything is shut, whereas none of that happens for Remembrance Day. That said Remembrance Day is a worldwide event.

“I think Anzac Day holds a bit more reverence as an Australian and there’s a little bit more mystique behind what Anzac Day signifies, but for me, I’m involved in organising both and it’s a highly stressful day running around getting a lot of stuff done.”

 

 

During his speech, Dean read extracts from a letter written by Private Reg Gorham from Harefield Hospital, England, to his Sister Ruby, dated 6th May, 1918 which said, “In answer to your letter, which I received a fortnight ago, I must thank you and Gladys for your pretty birthday cards, which I have just received. They were rather a long while coming, as I see they were posted in October. I have been lucky to get some parcels at last, one from Mother, one from Myra L, and one from Mr. Sandercock.

“The tobacco and cigarettes were very acceptable, as they are very dear over here. My wound is nearly alright, now, but the doctor just told me it would be some time before I can use my hand. I have had letters just lately from my mate (Alec), who is still going strong, one from Abe Keefe, who has been gassed and is in hospital over here somewhere and one from Stanley, who has had a very tough time, as nearly all his battalion have been killed or wounded. It is very rough in France just now. Everywhere in Old England looks well. There is plenty of D Franklin grass, but all the same you don’t see much fat stock.

 

 

“It is quite hot, not a burning heat like we have in Australia, but very sultry and close. I met the owner of Harefield Park yesterday, quite accidentally I was walking about the hospital, when he spoke to me and asked me where I was wounded, and what part of Australia I came from. When I told him Burrowa district, he said he had lived about there and owned Kenyu Station. I knew then it was Sir Billyard Leake.

“I told him my name was Gorham, and he said he knew the name well. He then asked me to take a walk with him and showed me stud cattle, stud sheep stud pigs, etc. He then invited me home to have tea with him. I gratefully accepted the invitation and had a good meal.

 

 

After conversing for a short time, I told him I must be going, as I had to be in the hospital gates by 7o’clock sharp. He shouted me a cigar and cigarettes and walked nearly to the hospital with me. He also invited me to call again. He gave this Harefield Park as a hospital for the Australians just at the outbreak of the war.

“I am enclosing a postcard view of the interior of Harefield Church: it will give you some little idea of its beauty. He owns a good bit of land about here. He has one son in English army and another in the navy. The latter had a narrow escape about a week ago, as he was in that great Zeebrugge battle. I cannot tell you when the war is going to end, as I have no idea, but I think it will take a turn after this next big push, which we are expecting to take place shortly. I have written to all at home this week, so hope you receive them alright. Remember me to all my old pals and all on the creek.”

Lest we forget.

-Jack Murray

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