NOVEMBER 2018 | VOLUME 69 NO 973 | $8.

40 (INC GST)

TM

Centenary of the
Armistice of the Great War
NSW Government Railways and Tramways employees
who died during the conflict

Journal of the Australian Railway Historical Society

ABOVE: On 1 November 1917, Frank Hurley photographed a light railway train being used to move a group of Australian Pioneers back
from the front in the Ypres sector. The locomotive is a 2-6-2T, one of 100 locomotives supplied by Alco to the WD between February and
May 1917. The train is made up of 10 ton capacity Class D bogie open wagons. ARHSnsw RRC 510516
BELOW: HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) ‘Berrima’. This vessel was used as part of the Australian Naval & Military Expedition to
the islands north of the country early in the war and later carried the AIF to Egypt and Europe. John Newland postcard collection.
ARHSnsw RRC 510001

2 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

 November 2018

Volume 69 No 973

W AY HI S T
IL O
A

R
IC
TRALIAN

AL
SOCIE
US

TY
A
N
ON SW
DIVISI
FOR ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN RAILWAYS

ON THE COVER: One of a set of five very similar photographs taken by Sam Hood about 1927. They are the only known photographs which
show the complete Honour Board in place. Mitchell Library ON204 _ 42 _ 61
ABOVE: The push that would end the First World War began at Amiens on 8 August 1918. The British Second Army planned to rely on the
Belgian Railways for their supply line and the operation of the line was entrusted to the 6th Australian Broad Gauge Railway Operating
Company, which was largely made up of men from the NSW Railways. On 11 November the Armistice was signed, hostilities ceased and
this photo was taken of a group from the 6th celebrating next to one of their locomotives, ROD 307. From the few men in the photo who
can be identified, they appear to be workshops staff: boilermakers, fitters and blacksmiths.

EDITORIAL
W
elcome to a special edition of Australian Railway splendid piece of work. The subsequent history of the boards
History. This month we commemorate the after 1960 is unknown, until they were delivered to the
Centenary of the Armistice of the Great War. Heritage Store in the old paint shop at Eveleigh about 2007.
We mark the event by acknowledging the NSW Government ARHSnsw was commissioned by Transport Heritage NSW
Railways and Tramways employees who died during the to prepare brief biographies for each of the 1219 names that
conflict. appear on the boards. Some of these have featured through
Bill Phippen has written an article that looks at the out this edition.
history of the Memorial and Roll of Honour that was created Stephen McLachlan
for Sydney Railway Station. The boards were described as a Editor
Editor/Design & Layout: Division and Branch Details: New South Wales Secretary: G Thurling Phone: 02 9699 4595 Fax: 02 9699 1714
Stephen McLachlan Newcastle Branch Secretary: J Barnes Phone: 02 4952 8637
Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available in both print and digital, please head to our website arhsnsw.com.au to
Editorial Team:
complete your subscription and payment. Subscriptions Renewal: You can now renew your subscriptions on our
Paul Scells, Col Gilbertson,
website arhsnsw.com.au, head to the magazine page for options and payment.
Richard Mathews, James Dalton,
Bill Phippen, Craig Mackey, Information and Research: Railway Resource Centre Manager: James Dalton Phone: 02 9699 2736
Shane O’Neil, Peter Sellars, Email: resources@arhsnsw.com.au Hours: 9am–4pm Mon–Fri Reading Room: 67 Renwick Street, Redfern, NSW 2016
Ben Barnes, John Brown. Hours: Noon–4pm Tue, 10am–3pm Sat
Contribution Guidelines: Contributions to Australian Railway History are welcome. Articles and illustrations remain
Email: editorarh@arhsnsw.com.au the copyright of the author and publisher. Submissions for articles appearing in Australian Railway History should
Website: www.arhsnsw.com.au be limited to approximately 6000 words. This will result in approximately ten pages of a fully-laid-out article with
photographs, charts, maps etc. In occasional special circumstances longer articles will be published over several
Publisher: issues. Authors should check the ARH Author’s Guide on the ARHSnsw website.
Australian Railway Historical Articles may not be reproduced wholly or in part without the written permission of the editor and the author.
Society, NSW Division Please do not submit photos or articles that have previously been published or submitted to other publications.
ACN 000 538 803 All slides and photos will be returned to their owners at the publisher’s expense. Views expressed in this magazine
Printing: Ligare Pty. Ltd. Print Post are not necessarily those of the editorial staff or publisher. Typed material can be sent via email to the
Publication No. 100000887 Editor at editorarh@arhsnsw.com.au or via CD (Word document format only): The Editor, Australian Railway History,
67 Renwick Street, Redfern, NSW 2016
Letters: We publish a selection of letters depending on space allowances. Letters should be kept to around 250
words and preferably be sent via email.

Copyright © Australian Railway Historical Society New South Wales Division 2018
 The concourse of Sydney Station on 15 April 1955. By this date the central pairs of boards had
been removed. NSW State Archives NRS 21573-2. NSWR Public Relations photo 2031.

4 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

Commemorating the
NSWGR&T Dead of
The Great War
Bill Phippen

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 5

 The Great Sydney Station
Roll of Honour
1

The Need to Commemorate

What is in the 21st Century termed the First World War was
at the time known as The Great War, and the common epithet
applied to it is the ‘war to end all wars’. Certainly, the loss in
human life was truly staggering and the lists of the dead, even
in ‘small’ organisations in ‘small’ countries and states were
very long. The NSW Government Railways and Tramways
(NSWGR&T) were but one, albeit large, industry in one state
of one of the smaller countries which took part in the war,
yet their list of ‘the fallen’ ultimately reached 1,210.2 It is
suggested that the NSWGR&T was probably the contributor
of the largest single disciplined group of men to enlist in the
armed services of the Australian Commonwealth in the
Great War.
The precise number of men who served is known to be
8,4773, though no list of all their names has survived. As the
lists of the fallen steadily grew, people and organisations
across the nation sought ways to cope with this loss and one
of those ways was the reverent publication of lists and the
placement of those lists on masonry monuments in public
places and within public buildings on elaborate, commonly
timber, decorative panels. These are usually referred to as
Honour Boards to distinguish them from free-standing,
weather-resistant, memorials in town squares and the like.
The published list, therefore nominally at least on paper, is
often termed an Honour Roll. Boards in general, and the one
which is the focus of this essay, do in fact have the words ‘Roll
of Honour’ at their head, so the use of the term ‘board’ is in
some senses inaccurate, but convenient for the discussion
which follows.
The NSWGR&T, with so many men serving and, at least
initially, a few dying, joined in this reverence. All forms
of commemorative lists of names appeared in workshops,
depots and stations across the network. This is a much wider
subject than the narrow focus of this piece on a single board.
It is discussed by Jim Longworth in ARH November 2011,
‘Looking Back, Looking Forward, NSW railway honour rolls
and war memorials’. It should however be made clear that
most of these objects list all who served from a particular
place, and mark with some symbol the lesser number who
died on active service. Ken Inglis4 has noted that the naming
of all enlistees rather than just the dead is a distinctively
Australian custom on war memorials. The published lists
referred to in this article, and the physical object which was
erected at Sydney Station5, were only intended to include the
names of the dead.
It should be set out from the beginning that the
object under discussion is not a single very large piece of
cabinetwork, but a set of four identical timber and glass
constructions. They were built over a number of years and
each of the four comprises a larger upper section and a smaller
lower section which were skilfully made to appear as a single
piece of work. In their location, at least after 1927, they were

The first list of names of NSWGR&T dead to be published.

NSW Railway and Tramway Budget 1 July 1915 p10

6 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

ABOVE: Plans prepared, even while the Gallipoli Campaign was
still underway, dated 22 September 1915, for an honour board.
This is the board that was built and unveiled in March 1916 and the
prototype for the four that would be made over following years.
RRC Collection
RIGHT: A plan for supplementary frames to be added to the Roll of
Honour. This plan is undated, but an otherwise identical plan with
the extra panel instead fixed directly to the wall has an annotation
8.9.16. This plan has 'Cancelled' written across the top right.
RRC Collection
arrayed on four stone and brick columns separated by the
windows of the State Booking Office.6 The larger sections have
space for 248 names and the smaller 60. For working purposes
the author has designated the large sections as A, B, C, D, and
the smaller as E, F, G, H. Whether the whole suite should be
referred to in the singular or the plural is a debatable point.
The order of lettering is established as the order of names
is approximately order of death, or more correctly that date at
which a compiler in Sydney became aware of a death.
Additionally, panels A and B have a distinct format in the
typesetting, with a full stop after the surname, rather than a
comma as on the rest.
The first list of names of NSWGR&T men who had died
appeared in the New South Wales Railway & Tramway Budget,
the in-house magazine of the organisation, in July 1915. It
included only ten names, and setting a precedent which
would persist, one of the names, at least, was mis-spelled.
Vincent Alexander Stack was actually Vincent Alexander
Stach. In truth, Stach was a recently assumed name, for
Vincent was really Stach von Goltzheim7 and had, in the
circumstances of the time, decided to anglicise his name. The
first deaths in service, as far as NSWGR&T were concerned,
had occurred on Anzac Day, 25 April, so having any list in a
magazine published on 1 July was an achievement.
The list was published monthly, of ever increasing, but
not alarming, length. In August 1915 it contained 43 names
and in December, 85. At about this time the editors appear to
have lost interest in keeping the Roll up-to-date as the same
piece of typesetting, with tiny amendments, continued to
appear every month until September 1916. It is known now
that about twice this number of railwaymen had died at
Gallipoli8 before the evacuation in December 1915 and by
that ninth month of 1916 the horrors of the Western Front
were well underway, though casualties of the catastrophic
night at Fromelles in July were just too late for publication on
1 September9. Two lessons emerge from this near static list.
Firstly, that the correspondence between deaths occurring in
the battlefields of Europe and typesetting for a magazine in
Sydney is remote, and secondly that the compilation of these
things requires effort and diligence. Only two names were
added during this period. Arthur Louis Smallwood Edwards
was a valid addition as he had certainly died at Gallipoli, but
A D Perry was soon dropped from any Roll. He had certainly
died, but was ultimately not considered a railwayman for the
purposes of the Roll of Honour.
NSWGR&T men who served in the Australian Imperial
Force had not resigned from their jobs. They had been
‘released from duty’10 or ‘granted leave’ to ‘join the
Expeditionary Forces’. Their position was guaranteed, and
their wage was maintained at its civilian rate by the payment
from the NSWGR&T of the difference if their army pay
was lower. They also received routine pay increments and
adult rates once they reached 21 years, had they enlisted at
a younger age. There were clearly men, and A D Perry was
Biographies
T
he few biographies included with this essay are a tiny
fraction of the 1219. The major sources of information
are the National Archives of Australia (naa.gov.au); The
Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au) and the record cards in
NSW State Archives and Records. Dugald Black (DB), Richard
Mathews (RM), Bill Phippen (BP), and Lily Sommer (LS),
have researched and written biographies, and the individual
pieces are so identified.
Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 7
Alexander Coe
A
lexander Coe (Service Number 2967), became
an apprentice at Eveleigh on 28 July 1902, in the
Locomotive Workshops. By 7 December 1907, his
apprenticeship expired, but he was later given the position of
labourer on 6 July 1908. Two more changes in position came
before joining the AIF, to Painter in September 1908, and
to Painter 1st Class in November 1913.
He joined the AIF on 3 April 1915, and
signed up under the name ‘Alec’, rather
than Alexander, at the age of 28, allotted
to the 5th Field Ambulance. His mother
was given as his next of kin, though this
would later cause controversy following
his death.
He embarked at Sydney on Transport
A40 ‘Ceramic’ on 25 June 1915 and
proceeded to join the Mediterranean
Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli on 16
August 1915. After the evacuation of the
peninsula in December he returned to
Egypt and from there proceeded to join
the British Expeditionary Force for France
at Alexandria on 17 August 1916.
Coe was awarded the Military Medal in
France on 24 March 1917 for bravery Alexander Coe. AWM website
in the field.
Lt. Col. J. S Phipps wrote:
‘On the 27th February 1917 at about 12-30 p.m. word
was received at LE SARS Advanced Dressing Station, that
two men were lying wounded in an exposed position on the
BAPAUME ROAD. Sgt Ivor Ling, L/Cpl. Arthur Bailey, Pte.
Clive Catt and Pte. Alexander Coe at once proceeded to locate controversy over his estranged widow. His mother also
these men This was accomplished after a most dangerous
and difficult search of about 800 yards from LE SARS A.D.S., Victory Medal in trust for his young daughter, Phyllis Lillian.
two men of the 22nd Australian Infantry Battalion, attached
to the V 2 A.T.M. Battery being found. No. 361 Bomber
DODD H was lying on the side of the road with shell wound
probably one of them, who had resigned from the Railway
or Tramway not long before the war for their own reasons,
and who had no claim on the organisation, and, despite the
enthusiasm of others to honour their dead mate, had to be
excluded.
The term Expeditionary Force also needs explanation.
The more correct term might be assumed to be Australian
Imperial Force (AIF). There was a force, sent from Australia
to the north early in the war to seize German possessions,
and this was known as the Australian Naval and Military
Expeditionary Force, (AN&MEF), and several NSWGR&T
personnel did serve with it. The later groups of soldiers
leaving Australia were certainly known as the AIF, but
in Europe the AIF formed one segment of the larger
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (at Gallipoli) or the
British Expeditionary Force (in France and Belgium). The
NSWGR&T terminology is thus correct, though it overlooks
the intermediate step that enlistees joined the AIF, which
became part of the Expeditionary Forces. The spelling of
the word ‘honour’ also deserves comment, as there is no
consistency in the use of ‘Honor’ or ‘Honour’ at all – even in
the same paragraph!
8 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History
in left thigh, and No. 316 Pte. BARTLEY R. was lying in a
cellar, into which he had apparently fallen with a fractured
skull and unconsciousness. First Aid was rendered, and
through heavy shell fire, (Both shrapnel and High Explosive)
the patients were conveyed to the Regimental Aid Post, the
distance of carrying being 800 yards. Both on the forward
and the return journeys several narrow
escapes were experienced by the party.
Major CHAPMAN, the Officer i/c of
the forward A.D.S’s further reports that
this squad behaved in an exceptionally
cool and courageous manner during the
recent operations.
I therefore wish to recommend these
men for immediate reward, for untiring
and conspicuous devotion to duty, and
setting a fine example to those around
them.’
Coe died from wounds to the abdomen
received in action on 25 September
1917 in Belgium. Following his death,
there were problems with establishing
his next of kin – he had listed his
mother, but it was protocol that his
wife be his next of kin. However, he
and his wife had split up prior to his enlistment, which was
perhaps why she was omitted from his enlistment records.
The personal items that were left were a disc, medal ribbons,
3 coins, scissors, a metal watch, a knife, 2 purses, a metal
match box cover, an electric torch, a photo wallet and photos,
and a metal charm. These went to his mother, despite the
received the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and the
Alexander Coe was buried in Reningheist New Military
Cemetery, Flanders, Belgium. (LS)
The Memorial and Roll of Honour
Unveiled at Sydney Station
Proposals for the public display of the names of the fallen
began while the Gallipoli Campaign was still very much
underway. The first notice came in October when the
Budget reported the intention to provide an Honour Board
on the Assembly Platform11, although this seems to have
only been intended to be an interim arrangement until a
more permanent memorial would be erected. Plans for the
cabinet, the one that was built, were already in existence,
dated 22 September 1915, and the object was unveiled on
Sunday 12 March 1916. Despite the fact that the Budget was
still publishing a list with 85 names, the new Honour Board
had 162. The photo, containing the 162 names, is confirmed
as being of the Board in its original condition by a letter to
the editor of Budget in May 1916, in which Captain-Chaplain
Colwell notes that it contains ‘150 names’.
The relationship between the compilers of the Budget list
and those for the Honour Board is not known, but someone
was doing well. Not very many more than 162 men had died
ABOVE: The author’s arbitrary naming of the panels to facilitate the archival work of re-establishing the missing and damaged names.
Graham Henderson Drawing
BELOW: The Roll of Honour, as it first appeared. Although the surrounds have been masked, perhaps for some printing purpose, the
cabinetwork does seem to rest on short timber legs. NSW State Archives NRS 4481 _ ST5876P

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 9

at Gallipoli and some of the names would not emerge until
years after the war.
The ceremony was a grand one and is described in detail in
the Budget of 1 April. The precise location is not noted, beyond
the ‘large assembly hall of the Central Railway Station’. The
board was described as a ‘splendid piece of work, designed and
executed by the Engineer-in-Chief’s branch at the C. and W.
Department at Eveleigh.’
Present were Colonels J. Harper (Chief Commissioner),
James Fraser and Edmund Milne (Assistant Commissioners),
Lieut.-Col E. E. Lucy (Chief Mechanical Engineer), Lieut.-Col.
Kendall (Engineer-in-Chief), Majors Ranken, Mars and
Hodgson, and numerous other officials who did not hold
military rank. The Newtown Tramway Band played “Nearer
My God to Thee”. Mr Harper spoke, noting that 4,600
NSWGR&T men had already volunteered. Several military
chaplains spoke, including Captain-Chaplain Rose who
had already lost a son with another wounded, and Captain-
Chaplain O’Brien who had been an employee at Darling
Harbour before joining the priesthood. He had been to the
Western Front. Captain-Chaplain Keith Miller not only called
for conscription, but universal service.12
The actual unveiling was by Sergeant J. J. De Putron,
General Secretary of the R. and T. Ambulance Corps, buglers
played the “Last Post”, a piper played the “Scottish Lament”
and the Newtown band finished the ceremony with the
“Dead March from Saul” and “God Save the King.”
The only photographs of the Honour Board which have
been found are much later and show it, in a much-augmented
form, on the stone and brick columns of the wall between
the Assembly Hall and the State Booking Office. Its initial
location in 1916 was certainly not there as plans for a
second stage show extra panels beside the original, fixed to a
masonry wall and at the later location there were windows,
not walls, beside the cabinets.
The cabinet work was 5 feet (1.5m) over its widest
dimension and 7 feet (2.1m) high. The names were printed
on a loose separate board which was secured behind a glazed
door. The glass was ornately decorated with paint and gold
leaf on the internal face to frame the names. There were
four columns of names, potentially 62 in each, though at
unveiling, only 40 or 41 names were required in each column.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that this board was
hopelessly inadequate for the carnage to come, and even in
September 1916 plans had been made to double the capacity.
Two plans were prepared with extra panels holding two
columns of 62 more names on either side. One design had the
panels fixed to the wall, and the second had them hinged off
the original cabinet as part-open shutters but held by a brass
stay to the wall. Both designs confirm that the mounting
position was not the location observed later. Neither plan was
adopted and the need for more space was met by building a
second identical cabinet. (Section B). It may have been at this
time that the now two boards were placed on the columns
outside the State Booking Office.
The Budget continued to publish the Roll of Honour on a
single page of less than a hundred names until September
1916. In November it was revamped as two pages, now with
about 180 names, and this was the list published month after
month until November 1917. In December 1917 there was no
Roll of Honour in the magazine, which had been refreshed
and rebadged as the Railway and Tramway Magazine, just a note
that it had been withdrawn for revision and in February 1918
it was there once again but now five pages containing 846

William Bertrand Hanna

N
o railway employment Record
card can be located for William
B Hanna. The Railway and
Tramway Institute Roll of Honour Book
shows Hanna as serving in the 26th
Battalion and working in the Railways
Traffic Branch. William Bertram
Hanna (Service Number 4424) served
in that unit and declared himself on
his enlistment to have been a railway
employee, so is identified as the man
who served. All references to William
Hanna in Government Gazettes prior to
the war lead to a man working in the
Per-Way Branch, so the assignation to
the Traffic Branch is unexplained.
Hanna was, at least by his declaration
on his Attestation Papers, born about
September 1894 at Maclean, as he
gave his age as 21 years and 1 month.
This was a lie, presumably to avoid the
need for parental consent, which was
perhaps not available, as when he died
in April 1917 he was still 19, and his
parents ensured that his correct age was
ultimately engraved on his headstone,
as late as 1927. He was in fact born on
1 August 1897. At his enlistment in later and died of those wounds at the
Lismore on 15 September 1915 he stated 3rd Casualty Clearing Station on 27
that he was not married and gave his April 1917. He was buried at Grevillers
father as his next of kin, though this British Cemetery 1¾ miles W of
was later changed to his mother, Jane, Bapaume. He was 19 years old. (BP)
and further stated that he had served for
a year and a half in the cadets.
He left Australia through Brisbane
aboard HMAT ‘Star of Victoria’ on 30
March 1916 and after further training
in Egypt embarked at Alexandria on
20 May aboard the Transport ‘Ivernia’
for passage through Marseilles to join
the British Expeditionary Force on
the Western Front in France. He was
almost immediately transferred to the
26th General Hospital with Influenza
and was not taken on the strength of
his Battalion until 2 August. He was
wounded in action on 5 November with
shrapnel to his arm and evacuated to
England. It was not until 7 April 1917
that he was fit to re-join his unit in
France.
He was wounded on a second
occasion, this time with gunshot
wounds to his buttocks, three weeks William Bertram Hanna. AWM website

10 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

names! This list was reprinted with additions in April (866 dead. It was to be erected in the gardens at the western
names) and July (891 names), but the dedication of five pages end of Sydney Station and a competition for its design was
was too much, even quarterly, so for the next appearance, announced in Weekly Notice 51 of December 1918, with more
only the additional names were listed, and this continued in details given in Weekly Notice 52. The desire was that the
most months until November 1919. These additional names, design would be by a NSWGR&T employee and cash prizes of
especially after the end of the war in November 1918, were £50, £30 and £20 were provided. The specifications included
not generally men succumbing to injuries but rather military the number of names to be included as ‘about 1,000’. This
paperwork catching up. William Hilton Mendham had died is evidence that the timber and glass board in its final form
on 8 November 1917, but his railway record card carries the was neither designed nor imagined at that date for if it were
note ‘Advice received from Military Clerk 5.6.20’.13 then the quoted number would have been 1,200. The call
So, by early 1918 the total number of dead was known to be for designs also appeared on 13 December 1918 as a Chief
about 900, more could be expected to be discovered as facts Mechanical Engineer’s Circular.
were learned, and Space for
the war was still one thousand
at its height with (actually 992)
no expectation names would not
of an early end. be enough, even
The two cabinets as the third and
of the board as it fourth cabinets
existed could only (C, D)14 were
hold 496 names, installed as the
so two more were war ended. The
ordered. (Sections fact that the next
C and D). A plan addition to the
of the positioning board is filled
of these extra so neatly, must
two cabinets suggest that the
survives. In the last stage was
date on the plan held back until
the year (1918) is the final total
clear, as is the day, was known,
but the month as late as the
is indeterminate early 1920s. The
to several sets 1920 Annual
of eyes which Report printed
have pored over Roll of Honour,
it. It is a single, presumably the
round topped best knowledge
number and not that could be
an ‘8’. The best had, contains
guess of most 1,179 names.
who have tried Even in 1921, 41
is ‘2’ or ‘3’, and further names
that date would would be added
seem to fit with before the
the revelation, carnage ended, at
documented least as far as the
in Railway Annual Report’s
and Tramway tabulation was
Magazine, that the concerned, at
total was heading 1,210 names.
for 1,000. The If all the now
plan shows as 16 columns of
existing, cabinets the 40 foot (12m)
on column two wide board15 were
and column to be extended
three, and that by 15 names
The cover of the printed Roll of Honour, once held at the Railway and Tramway Institute.
the new cabinets NSW State Archives. NRS 17514 then the 218 extra
would go on names would fit.
column one and column four. The required number was actually higher than this as there
The War ended in an Armistice on 11 November 1918. were already some names on the board which shouldn’t have
Virtually immediately the New South Wales Railways and been there, but they could hardly be removed or written over,
Tramways moved to create a permanent memorial to their and caution indicated that over coming years more names

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 11

Eric Allsopp

E
ric Allsopp, (Service Number 3621), appears on the
NSWGR&T Honour Roll as a railwayman, but an
employee card for him has not been found. There is
only one man with an AIF service record with those names,
either alone or with other names, and he enlisted as Eric
Allsopp, although after his death the authorities added
‘Arthur’ to his record as a middle name, Eric Arthur Allsopp
being the name under which he married in 1915. He was
born at Forbes on 7 November 1893, and on enlistment at
Holdsworthy in August 1915 stated his ‘trade or calling’ as
‘labourer’.
Embarked in December 1915, he landed in France in March
1916. In August he was given ‘7 days Field Punishment
No. 2’ for ‘using insubordinate language to his superior
officer’, but in February 1917 was promoted to Lance-
Corporal, and then Corporal. As such he was awarded a
Military Medal for his actions at Malt Trench, near Bapaume,
on 26 February 1917. Although the rest of his Lewis gun’s crew
were shot beside him and he himself was wounded in the eye,
he kept the enemy at bay while his mates withdrew. He spent
11 days in hospital with conjunctivitis in March. In May
he was promoted to Sergeant. He spent 2 weeks in hospital
with scabies in September. On 7 October 1917, at Ypres, he
was again wounded in action, and died of his wounds at
an Australian Field Ambulance Station the following day,
aged 23. He was buried in the Menin Road South Military
Cemetery. Pensions were granted by the authorities to his
widow, Leila, and the daughter, Leila Erroll, born in 1916
whom he never saw. (RM) Eric Allsopp. AWM website

The Assembly Platform about 1958 with two pairs of boards remaining.

12 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

Only two boards remain in place in this 1958 image. The date is attached to the photo in the archives and is consistent with the advertising
of air-conditioned trains on the panel above. NSW State Archives NRS 17420 _ 2 _ 26843 _ 120A
would emerge so a little slack was a good investment. There
are indications on the board that at least two minor additions
have been made since installation, and the restorers in 2018
have found use for four of the blank spaces.
In July 1918 a Mr Carruthers raised the issue of the
incomplete Honour Board at a Railway & Tramway Institute
meeting, but was answered by the General Secretary that the
matter was in hand.16 This may refer to the construction of
sections C and D.
The final stage of the board comprises four cabinets,
(Sections E, F, G, and H) as wide as the older ones but of low
height, each of which joins seamlessly below the larger one.
No plans for these cabinets have been found and no reference
as to when the work was done, nor any ceremonial associated
with their completion has been noted.
About 1927-1929, photographer Sam Hood took five, very
similar, photos on the assembly platform, and they all show
the complete board in place. The glass negatives are now held
in the Mitchell Library. A clearer photo, approximately square
on to the boards, was taken about 1958, but by that time
the centre pairs (B, C, F, G) had been removed to allow the
placement of an illuminated map of the NSW railway system.
The first and fourth pairs (A, D, E, H) were gone by 1960 when
the State Booking Office was revamped.
Until the restoration of the Honour Board in 2018, the
available listing of the Great War dead with the latest date
had been the 1921 Annual Report, nominally 30 June 1921,
but compiled early in the next financial year. However, a
document does exist which post-dates this Annual Report.
In September 1921 the proposal for the stone memorial
within the lawns at the western entrance to Sydney
Station17 was refreshed. The call for subscriptions to fund
its construction specifically states that it was intended to
take the place of the Honour Board. The project seems to
have raised as little enthusiasm in its second promotion as
it had in its first three years earlier and no further reference
to it has been found. Perhaps as a means of finalising this
miscarried project, a book of the names was prepared and
held in the Railway and Tramway Institute Library. The book
survives in the NSW State Archives.18 The announcement
of its completion is a small paragraph in the March 192419
issue of The Staff, as the Railway and Tramway Magazine had
once again been rebadged. The item states that the Roll
comprises 1209 names, though in fact it contains 1214! It is
also, for such a prestigious document, very badly proof-read.
Bush is Bust, Cane is Crane, Crooks is Cooks, Puddephatt
is Pubbephatt, and so on for 20 carelessly type-set names.
The names can however be correlated to the other lists and
the date of its compilation is known. Dismissing the gross
Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 13
errors, such as duplications and names of men who were not
dead, on the Honour Board as faits accompli, the book at the
Institute correlates very much better with the Honour Board
than it does with the 1921 Honour Roll. The final additions
to the Board may thus be dated to around March 1924 and
the assertion made that it is the better list, rather than the
previously accepted 1921 Honour Roll. The compilers in 1921
did not omit a few names as ineligible – the 1924 compilers
added them because they were eligible.
The Railway and Tramway Magazine had long ceased
publishing the latest list or any further additions, and there
was no Roll of Honour included in the 1922 Annual Report or
thereafter.
The subsequent history of the boards after 1960 is
unknown, until they were delivered to the Heritage Store
in the old paint shop at Eveleigh about 2007. At this time
the eight separated components of the ‘Board’ were in good
condition and not water damaged.20 They had, however,
acquired the title ‘The Narrabeen Honour Boards’ though
the source of that name is mysterious. There has never been
any railway or tramway building at Narrabeen, except for
a tramway waiting shed which survives in bus service. An
association with the Narrabeen War Veterans’ Home has
been suggested, but enquiries to that place have produced
no evidence of the Board ever being there. The suggestion
has been made that some Railway Depot or Workshop had
the name21 (or nickname) ‘Narrabeen’ and that the items
were stored there, but enquiries to long-term employees have
produced no recognition of the name.
Also mysterious is the fact that there is little or no
communal memory of the existence of this memorial. It was
only the quick, back-of-envelope, reckoning of the number
of names on the now eight separate boards as they were
‘discovered’ in the relocated Heritage Store at Chullora in
2014, and the identity of that number, about 1200, with the
known total of the railway dead in the Great War that alerted
custodians as to the significance of the ‘find’ and initiated the
search for details, locations and dates.

Lindsay Lee Archibald

L
indsay Lee Archibald was
born on 10 January 1891 at
Newtown, Sydney, and attended
Camdenville Public School in
Newtown. He joined the NSWGR&T,
in the Traffic Branch, on 22 November
1906 as a Telephone Boy in the Sydney
District. On 9 September 1907 he was
appointed Junior Porter in the same
Branch and District and remained
there until 5 April 1910 when he was
transferred, in the same position, to
the Lismore District. He remained in
the Lismore District and the Traffic
Branch for the rest of his employment
with the NSWGR&T, becoming a 3rd
Class Porter on 3 January 1912 and a 3rd
Class Shunter on 15 May 1913 before
reverting to a Porter on 25 July 1914.
Information provided by his father for
the Roll of Honour of Australia in the
Australian War Memorial indicates he
was based at Mullumbimby for at least
part of his time in the Lismore District.
On 18 March 1916 he was officially
released from duty to join the AIF.
Two days earlier, on 16 March 1916,
at Lismore, Lindsay enlisted in the AIF
where he was appointed to the rank of
Trooper (Service No. 2928) and assigned
to the 21st Reinforcements to the 2nd
Australian Light Horse Regiment. His
nominated next of kin was his sister,
Mrs Gladys Richards of Mullumbimby.
On 19 August 1916 he embarked at
Sydney for Egypt per RMS ‘Mooltan’
and arrived at Suez on 21 September
1916 where he went to Isolation Camp.
On 20 October 1916 he joined the
1st Light Horse Training Regiment
Lindsay Lee Archibald. AWM website
where he stayed for a month before
transferring to the 2nd Australian Light
Horse Regiment on 20 November 1916.
On 11 April 1918, Lindsay was killed
in action in Palestine and two days later
he was buried with due ceremony at El
Ghoraniye, Es Salt (60 yards from the
road), with Chaplain the Rev J H Bates
officiating.
In his Will, Lindsay appointed Miss
Frances Locke of Billinudgel (later of
Burringbar) as his sole beneficiary
and executrix. After his death several
letters were generated between her
and her solicitors, and the AIF, before
the AIF would issue her a certificate of
death so probate could be granted. No
information could be found as to the
nature of the relationship between Miss
Locke and Lindsay Archibald.
On 1 March 1921, in accordance
with the standard practice of the
time, AIF Base Records wrote to Mrs
Richards (his sister and next of kin)
requesting information about nearer
blood relatives to Lindsay than herself,
for the purpose of distributing war
medals and providing further details
of place of burial. This letter listed the
hierarchy of relatives. Mrs Richards
sent a comprehensive reply, giving the
address of her father, John Archibald, in
Newtown and also the addresses of her
four brothers who were still living, as
well as stating that her mother was no
longer living.
On 6 June 1924 further information
about Lindsay’s place of burial was sent
to John Archibald, stating that he was
buried in Jerusalem War Cemetery,
Israel, Plot H, Grave 9. The letter also
said: “While the actual place of burial
remains unchanged, the previous
registration allotted has been altered
to conform with the uniform layout
of this cemetery.” It is not clear if this
means the site of Lindsay’s original
burial at El Ghoraniye was incorporated
into the Jerusalem War Cemetery, or his
remains were exhumed and moved to
the Jerusalem War Cemetery where the
registration of his grave was changed
without further moving his gravesite
within the cemetery. No record of his
remains being exhumed and moved is
included with his Military Record. (DB)

14 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

Wilfred Davis

W
ilfred Davis (Service Number 1180) was born 4 objective this N.C.O. for 13 hours constantly attended to wounded
February 1889 at Kendall on the North Coast of men in the open regardless of self and carried them into the shelter
NSW, and began his tramway career on 30 March of a captured blockhouse, His conduct inspired all ranks.”
1912, when he was casually employed as a conductor in He was not long after sent to England for ‘special duty
Sydney. In November, 1912 he became permanent. He joined with the War Office’ on 20 January 1918 and was shortly after
the AIF on 1 March 1915 at the age of 26. He embarked from selected for special duty with the Imperial Army. He was also
Australia on 12 May 1915. on this day promoted to Sergeant.
Although there is no record in his files of service at Wilfred Davis died of cholera in the field on 7 July 1918.
Gallipoli, the dates of his service and the fact that he was He is buried in the Hamadan Military Cemetery in Persia.
hospitalised in Mudros in late December 1915 suggest such In addition to the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the
activity. Mudros is the harbour on Lemnos, an island close Military Medal, his mother was also sent the 1914/15 Star, the
to the peninsula and was used as a support base. He had British War Medal, and the Victory Medal for his service. (LS)
recovered by March 1916, when he embarked at Alexandria
to join the British Expeditionary Force, and he disembarked
at Marseilles on 23 March 1916. He was found absent
without leave for 68 hours from 2 April to 5 April 1916. As
punishment, he was awarded 96 hours of field punishment
number two, as well as forfeiting 8 days’ pay.
On 26 September 1916 he was awarded the Distinguished
Conduct Medal for ‘services rendered during the recent
fighting at Pozières’. The citation is:
“After the attack of night of 28/29 July at POZIÈRES a number
of our dead and wounded were lying in No Man’s Land. Before
daylight Pte. Davis had brought in several of these men under M.G.
and rifle fire of a searching nature. For four hours after daylight
Pte. Davis in the most gallant manner went fearlessly over the
parapet; sometimes with a stretcher on his shoulder, and searched
shell holes in No Man’s Land. During this daylight work he brought
in the dead body of Capt. L.K. Chambers and also Lt. Maynard,
wounded. During remainder of tour in trenches he assisted to carry
wounded to Regimental Aid Post through barrages, and trenches
which were battered by shell fire.”
He was admitted to the hospital again on 24 December
1916, in Rouen. He re-joined from the hospital on 29 March
1917.
As well as his Distinguished Conduct Medal, he was
awarded the Military Medal.
“During the operations near Westhoek on 20 Septr. 1917 when
there were no more stretcher bearers obtainable, on reaching our The grave of Wilfred Davis. AWM website

The Heritage Store at Chullora, known colloquially as the 'Igloo'. This is where the Honour Board was 'found' and identified. Craig Mackey

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 15

 ABOVE: The 1918 plan for the location of cabinets C and D on the Assembly Pl
'Honor'. Through the whole of this era there was little discipline in the orthog

A B
E F

John Joseph Wallen

J
ohn Joseph Wallen (Service Number
153) was known by that name
to the NSWGR bureaucracy, and
no doubt that was the name on his
birth certificate, but he seems to have
been better known by the surname
DYMOND, which he took on after his
mother married William Dymond at
Hay in 1896. John Joseph was born on
15/5/1891 at Cootamundra (or perhaps
Yass, as one record states). He joined
the Railways as a fuelman at Junee
locomotive depot in February 1914. He
may have become a fireman (as some
fuelmen did), as later newspaper reports
of him stated, and he was stationed at
The Rock, the junction of the branch
line to Oaklands, when he was released
from duty to enlist in the AIF in Sydney
in September 1914. He was given a purse
of sovereigns and a pleasing send-off by
his friends at The Rock in October.
Allotted to the 13th Battalion, he was
embarked from Melbourne in December
1914, and was sent in April 1915 from
Egypt to Gallipoli. In June 1915 he was
appointed Corporal, and spent 2 weeks
at a Casualty Clearing Station suffering
from bronchitis. He was posted missing
in August 1915, and in April 1916,
after the withdrawal from Gallipoli, a
military Court of Enquiry convened in
Egypt found that he must have been
killed in action on 22 August 1915. His
identity disc had been found on Hill 60
by a New Zealand officer, and a number

16 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

latform. The date is just visible below the title block. Also note the spelling of
graphy of the word. NSW State Archives
C D
G H
of witnesses told a similar story, one
later recorded by the Red Cross saying –
‘About August 22 No.5 Platoon of B
Coy. 13th Battalion was going out to
a charge in the vicinity of Hill 971. A
big shell came over and fell amongst
men, many of whom were killed, while
others were wounded. A shell set fire
to some high grass in the vicinity. The
men had bombs in their pockets, and
these were heard to explode during the
course of the fire. The ground on which
the men fell was behind the Australian
lines since the Turkish trenches were
held. Stretcher bearers tried to get
to the men but this was impossible
owing to the enemy’s fire and the
flames. Only 4 men of the 5th Platoon
came out of the charge and Dymond
was amongst the men who fell. All of
them must either have been killed by
the shell or by the bombs they were
carrying.’
Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 17
© Graeme S Henderson / ARHSnsw 2018
He has no known grave, but is
remembered with honour on a special
collective memorial erected in the
Anzac (Gallipoli) Hill 60 Cemetery, 2¾
miles NNE of Anzac Cove, bearing his
full regimental particulars together
with the inscription:
‘Buried in this Cemetery, actual grave
unknown’. (RM)
(NAA B2455-3531234)
 Restoring the
Roll of Honour
T
he object is owned by Railcorp and is part of the State
Moveable Heritage Collection, and during the time
of its restoration was in the care of Transport Heritage
NSW, who wholly managed and funded the project. The
water damaged name panels have been replaced with replicas,
with the originals carefully conserved and stored. The timber
cabinets have been restored.
In view of the intention to display the Roll of Honour
at a place as public as Sydney Station, with the consequent
risk of damage, the plain glass originally used has been
replaced with a more robust composite material. The badly
damaged paint and gold foil mask on the inside face of the
glass has been recreated using modern techniques. Once the
board is restored. to Sydney Station its care will become the
responsibility of Sydney Trains.
The physical restoration was entrusted to specialist art
conservation company, Art and Archival. This involved
cleaning and stabilisation of the original paper panels for
proper storage, and the repair of the timber and glass cabinets,
retaining the patina of age and use according to the best
practice. Two of the base plinths are missing and these have
been replaced.

ABOVE: Panel A after removal from the cabinet in 2018

Art and Archival
LEFT: Panel A as it was first seen by the author in 2014. Severe water
damage at lower left is evident. The bright circles are images of the
sun created by the 'pin-hole camera' effect through holes in the
roof of the shed in which the boards were stored. Bill Phippen

Alexander Finnie

A
lexander Finnie, (Service
Number 20) born in 1893 in
Botany, joined the Tramways as
a tinsmith’s apprentice at the Randwick
workshops in 1908. On completion of
his apprenticeship in June 1914 he was
dismissed, as was the custom at the
time, but re-employed the following
week as a tradesman. In August 1914 he
was granted leave to enlist in the AIF in
Sydney and allotted to the Engineers.
Embarked from Sydney in October
1914, he was in Egypt in March 1915,
wounded in action at Gallipoli in
August 1915 and evacuated to Egypt
and hospitalised with ‘gas poisoning’.
Returning to duty in November, he
re-joined his unit in France in July 1916,
and was promoted to Corporal. In April
1917 he transferred to the Australian
Flying Corps, qualified as a pilot in
England, was made a temporary 2nd
Lieutenant (pilot) in November, then a
Lieutenant in February 1918 and after
training was posted to No 4 Squadron,
AFC. In April he was sent to France, and
on 22 May was reported ‘missing in
action’. The Official History of Australia
in the War, Vol. VIII, later recorded
that on that day he and another pilot,
‘two accomplished airmen, dived at
one balloon together, collided in the
air, and both crashed and were killed.’
He was buried by the Germans in Trou
Bayard German Cemetery, 600 metres
N of Estaires. In 1921 that Cemetery was
concentrated into Pont du Hem Military
Cemetery, Lagorgue, and he was
reburied in the latter Cemetery. (RM)

18 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

ABOVE: Panel A, The loose panel, on which the names are written, from the original panel now completed with a second tranche of names,
probably photographed at the time of that work. The existence of this photo meant that reading names through the mould and rot was
not required. NSW State Records NRS 4481 _ ST5968
BELOW: The left-hand end of one of the lower cabinets in 2014. The author’s intent was to document the names, so photos were framed for
that purpose. With the cabinets flat on the floor, face-on shots of whole cabinets were not possible. Bill Phippen

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 19

 Apart from the physical restoration
there were also significant archival issues
and these were entrusted to the Railway
Resource Centre, the archival section of
the Australian Railway Historical Society,
NSW Division.
Most notably, the gross water damage
to two of the large panels (A and C) meant
that names could not be read, and there
is the fact of the complete loss of one of
the small printed panels (G), although the
cabinet was intact.
At first glance the problem was not
too difficult. The 1921 Annual Report
printed Roll of Honour existed in multiple
copies. A simple process of elimination
would establish the missing names. Good
fortune was had when staff of NSW State
Archives and Records located an original
high-quality square-on photo of one of
the badly water-damaged panels (A) from
the time of construction, before it had
been placed in its cabinet.
Identification of the names on the
second damaged panel (C) had to await
physical restoration. Much of the gold
leaf and paint had peeled from the glass
and fallen to the bottom of the cabinet,
obscuring some names. Once the cabinet
had been unlocked (by a locksmith as
the keys were long lost), the detritus was
readily moved to uncover some names.
Fortunately the column adjacent to the
illegible names – the branch in which the
man served – was less damaged and this,
with the tiniest fragments of letters just
legible, led to recognition of the names
from a limited set of possibilities. Art and
Archival applied sophisticated techniques ABOVE: Panel C as first seen by the author in 2014. Severe water damage at upper left is
such as UV light to enhance the legibility visible, as are names obscured by fallen paint and gold leaf at lower left and lower right.
of the last vestiges of ink not destroyed by At this time the cabinets were lying on the floor, sheathed in bubble-wrap. Bill Phippen
mould and silverfish. BELOW: The right .hand end of Panel H. Reflections of light coming through open doors
Thus, it was expected that 60 names were impossible to avoid and the visit was only an exploratory one. At the time this
would be left to fill the 60 places on the photograph was taken none of the staff from THNSW or ARHSnsw knew that the Honour
Board had ever existed. In the next few minutes the number of names was totted up and
lost panel. But there were 64 names left! the link to the Great War dead was realised. Note CYRIL RIDER in the left hand column.
The only inference that can be drawn The name is really CYRIL. Bill Phippen
is that there are four names on the 1921
printed Roll of Honour which had never
appeared on the Honour Board. There
is ample evidence of error on the part of
those who compiled the Board over six
or more years. Two names are duplicates.
Seven names which are on the Board do
not appear on the Roll with considerable
evidence that at least three of them were
not dead at all. Cyril Rider is displayed
as Cycil Rider. The Great Sydney Station
Honour Board is not unique in the wider
world of war memorials by having within
it errors and omissions.
When the 64 names are listed and the
first occasion on which they appear in
any list – Budget, Railway and Tramway

20 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

Magazine or Annual Report – is sought, exactly 60 of them are
first seen in the 1919, 1920 or 1921 Annual Reports. They had
never appeared in a magazine. That is not to say that they had
died after the war, though some had, but that their deaths had
come to notice only later. Four names had been noted in the
magazines, and really should have been placed on the board
in positions chronologically much earlier – on other panels
– but they weren’t. They are not there. Was this careless
drafting, poor supervision? After the name was omitted who
would ever go back and realise the error? The compilers of the
1921 Annual Report did, but they did not amend the Board.
So the managers of the 2018 restoration made the decision
that the 60 names first noted in the later Annual Reports
would fill the 60 places on the missing panel (G), and that,
just in case they were wrong, the four names which might
never have appeared on the Board, would be placed in the
spaces left in 1924 for late amendments at the end of the last
panel (H). These names should not be considered as added
in 2018 as they could well have been on the board always.
The lost panel forever precludes the possibility of exactly
knowing the names that it did contain, and while research
has identified the 60 most likely names there is no certainty.
No name which was once on the board has been omitted and
if names which did not appear in 1924 are included in 2018
they are names which unquestionably should have appeared.
The order in which the names appeared is clearly
unknowable. To avoid the contrived appearance which
alphabetical order would create the names are placed in order
of date of death.
ABOVE: Board C before opening the cabinet. Art and Archival
BELOW: Panel C after removal from the cabinet in 2018. No pristine
view of the upper left corner has been found, so very careful
examination of the surviving fragments of letters, and comparison
with other Rolls was required to establish the names.
Art and Archival

An Art and Archival conservator trying read fragments of letters

using UV light. Art and Archival

Noel Alfred Douglas Hayles

N
oel Alfred Douglas Hayles (Service Number 123)
was born in North Sydney on 15 December 1888
and joined the Tramways as a conductor in 1913. He
was based at the Fort Macquarie depot (on the site where the
Sydney Opera House now stands) when in September 1914 he
was released from duty to enlist in the AIF in Sydney.
Embarked from Melbourne in December 1914, he was sent
to Gallipoli with the 13th Battalion in April 1915 and was in
the boat preparing to land on 26 April when he was shot in
the head by enemy fire and seriously wounded. Removed on 3
May to the Hospital Ship ‘Goorkha’, he died on 10 May 1915,
and was buried at sea between Gallipoli and Alexandria the
same day. He is remembered with honour on the Lone Pine
Memorial. (RM)

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 21

22 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History
Anomalies on the Board
ARHSnsw was commissioned by Transport Heritage NSW to
prepare brief biographies for each of the 121922 names which
appear on the Board. This task eventually totalled more than
400,000 words and is beyond printed publication. The work
was completed in October 2018 and every story is different
and together they offer an insight into the lives of young
railwaymen, young soldiers and the Great War which will
surprise and inform any readers.
The Board contains nine names which do not appear in the
1921 Annual Report Roll of Honour.
J S ARMSTRONG, THOMAS J FLYNN, J M KELEHER, C
MANNS, JOHN MURRAY, H R OLSEN, R W PEARCE, ALBERT
J PRIOR and REG WASSON.
Flynn and Murray23 are easily accounted for as they are
duplicated names, but their presence does illustrate the
assembly process of the list over time, such that without
careful auditing, omissions and duplications can and did
occur. There are numerous examples within the list published
in the Budget of duplicated names, but at least there,
correction could be made in the next issue.
Thomas Flynn was a tram conductor and driver and he
died on or soon after the original Anzac Day. The NSWGR&T
clerks in Sydney only became aware of the fact through a
Sydney Morning Herald casualty list on 4 March 1916.
John Murray was a Per-Way24 worker in the northern
division. He died in France on 15 April 1917.
John Squire Armstrong’s name should not, in all
probability, be on the Board at all, though he certainly died
on active service. No connection can be found between him
and employment by the NSWGR&T. However, a man named
John Hutchinson Armstrong was an employee whose record
card, at least on first inspection, shows that he served in the
war and survived.
The most comprehensive record of NSWGR&T employees
is the ‘Record Cards’ (NRS 12922)25, now held by NSW State
Archives and Records at Kingswood. The series is actually a
record for superannuation purposes and was commenced in
LEFT TOP: The gold leaf and paint mask for the names on the large panels as re-created by Art and Archival. Art and Archival
LEFT BOTTOM: The gold leaf and paint mask for the names on the small panels as re-created by Art and Archival. Art and Archival
BELOW: Record card for John Hutchinson Armstrong, with 'killed in action' struck out, and 'confused with another man' noted.
NSW State Archives NRS 12922
1910 when that benefit was introduced. Records for earlier
service are included, provided employment continued past
1910. Superannuation only covered permanent employees,
so for casual employees, cards do not (usually) exist. Since, as
noted earlier, NSWGR&T men had not resigned the basic facts
of their military careers were recorded on their Railway record
cards.
An entry on John Hutchinson Armstrong’s card for 20
September 1917 shows him as ‘killed in action’, though the
entry is ruled through and noted as ‘mistaken for another
man’ – presumably John Squire Armstrong. After the war
Armstrong worked at Eveleigh in the sawmill until his death
in 1931. There is every likelihood that he walked through
the Assembly Platform and passed the Roll of Honour, but
whether he ever saw his record card with its revoked record of
his death, or knew that J S Armstrong’s name displayed on the
wall of the station was, in some senses, meant to be his name
is unknown.
The Honour Board contains the name R W Pearce. Reginald
William Pearce had been a railway employee until 1916,
but resigned, did not enlist until 1918, and did not arrive in
Europe until after the Armistice. If his was the name on the
board, then it should not have been there on several counts.
However, the Institute Book shows the name as Ralph W
Pearce, so the man was not Reginald William. No man named
Ralph W Pearce died, or even served, in the AIF, but a search
of the Australian War Memorial (AWM) site for ‘Ralph’ threw
up Ralph Webb Pearse. The name had been mis-spelled on the
Board. Pearse had served, returned to Australia, and resumed
work with the NSWGR, before he died of Tuberculosis on 13
April 1921 at Randwick. The Australian War Memorial sets
a cut-off date of 31 March 1921 for inclusion in the national
Roll of Honour, and Pearse is just beyond this. His name is
on the Roll in Canberra because the AWM records his date of
death as 13 March 1921.26 The cut-off date for the Railway and
Tramway Roll of Honour is unknown but conforming with
the national institution’s decision to include the name cannot
be criticised. Considering the dates, it is understandable that
Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 23
Record card for Charles Manns. Note the entry to the
right pointing out Manns' exclusion from the Roll, the
objections dismissal, and the lower note authorising
payment of the difference in pay at a later date.
NSW State Archives NRS 12922
his name had not reached the compilers of the 1921 Annual
Report in time for inclusion.
Charles Manns would, on the facts, seem to have real claim
to have his name on the Board and there must be doubts as to
whether its omission from the 1921 Roll of Honour is correct.
He was certainly a railwayman in the Signalling Branch until
he ‘resigned’ on 7 September 1914. This word has been ruled
through and replaced with ‘enlisted’. He served in the AIF
and died at Gallipoli a few days after the landing. In 1916 a
note on his card records a complaint from a J W Harford that
Manns’ name is omitted from the Roll of Honour, but this
is countered by an unidentified official as ‘Not regarded as
Railway Man for inclusion on Roll of Honour’. Many other
men would seem to have, perhaps mistakenly, resigned and
then immediately enlisted and their names are included in
the several Rolls of Honour.
Further confusion is made in 1921, when the card has
another note to the effect that the difference in pay is
now approved and is to be paid to Manns’ next of kin. The
authorities appear to have accepted the justice of the claim
and placed his name on the Board as the last one, with
Keleher, Pearce and Wasson who are also controversial.
Very little is known about any Railway career of James
Martin Keleher. A James W Keleher is recorded as employed
in 191427 and the middle initial may be a typesetter’s error.
He died in France on 28 July 1916. There is another entry
in the NSW Government Gazette listing the whole Railway
and Tramway staff on 31 December 191728 showing the
employment of a James Keleher on that date, a year and a half
after his death. Whatever the facts, the authorities in the early
1920s must have been convinced of the justice of his claim to
a place on the Roll of Honour.
No direct evidence of the association of Reg Wasson with
the railways or tramways can be located. No record card can
be found, and his name does not appear in any Government
24 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History
Gazette listing. He certainly served, and died, at Gallipoli.
He gave as his next of kin, his mother Rose McCann, and
Rose was a railway employee, at least by the several addresses
recorded for her at Coolalie, Gemalla, Otford and Sefton Park.
Unfortunately, no evidence of her employment can be located
either. Reg Wasson’s name is a very late addition to the board
and perhaps Rose eventually proved a railway connection to
her son.
Albert James Prior had a career with the Locomotive
Branch from 1910 until 1936, including nearly three years
active service in Europe. There is no obvious entry in his
military record which could lead to a misunderstanding that
he had died. After the war he resumed his railway career.
Working at Eveleigh, the inclusion of his name on the Roll
of Honour, must have been known to him. The later, more
considered, Annual Report list and the Institute Book do not
include his name.
Hector Roy Olsen does have an employee record card in the
NSWGR, and it does record military service and indeed his
death in action. However, that entry is ruled through without
explanation. He is also recorded in the Annual Reports as
having died on active service. No person of the name Hector
or Roy Olsen is listed in the National Archives Records, or on
the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour. He may have
enlisted under another first name, but a perusal of the 176
Olsens who did serve does not readily identify which one he
might be. He seems never to have returned to Australia and
was ‘written off the books’ in 1921. The error of having the
name on the Board was realised, but could not be undone.
The name was omitted from later compiled lists.
The Sydney Station Honour Board
compared to the National Roll
of Honour
It might be assumed that the NSWGR&T Board would be a
simple sub-set of the large bronze installation on the walls
of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. This is not so,
for the Sydney cabinets contain the names of NSWGR&T
employees who died as a result of the Great War, whereas
the Canberra panels list the names of persons who died as
a result of service in Australian Military Units. A number
of the men who enlisted from the Railways and Tramways
were British-born, recent arrivals in New South Wales, and
they chose to return to the United Kingdom to enlist with
units with which they had some traditional link. This had
no consequences for their inclusion in the
NSWGR&T Rolls. It does mean however
that their names are not displayed on
the walls in Canberra.

Edwin Thomas Alderton

E
dwin Thomas Alderton, (Service Number the [other] men picked up
6457), born in 1886 in North Sydney, a small German shell that
joined the Tramways in 1909 as a was lying near and went to
conductor, and became an acting electric tram throw it away. He must have
driver in May 1916, but was released from duty knocked it, as it exploded in
and joined the AIF the same month. his hand wounding L/Cpl
Embarked from Sydney in October he was Alderton and two others.’
sent via England to France, where he joined his Alderton died the same
unit in February 1917. He had a fortnight’s leave day at a Casualty Clearing
in England in February 1918, was wounded in Station. He was buried at
action in April but only off duty for a day, was Daours Communal Cemetery
appointed Lance Corporal in June, given ten Extension, 2¾ miles W of
days rest in August, but was accidentally seriously Corbie. (RM)
injured after re-joining his battalion on 28 August.
‘Alderton was playing cards with others… One of Edwin Thomas Alderton. AWM website

The Record card for Ralph Webb Pearse. All citations of this man in the several Rolls of Honour use the spelling ‘Pearce’, though this card
and the military records are correctly ‘Pearse’. Note that the railway record gives a precise date of birth verified by the sight of a document,
usually a birth certificate, and this is noted as ‘Proof of age No’. The army required no proof and only recorded a soldier’s age, including
months, as was stated by him on attestation. NRS 12922.

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 25

The Record card for Albert James Prior. The right-hand column has a stamp with space for the date of leave being granted, the later
discharge from Military and the resumption of Railway duty. Prior has dates for all these events and served for nearly three years, but
patently did not die on active service. NRS 12922.
Other Names Which
Might Be Included.
There are three names for which it is difficult to justify their
exclusion from any Roll of Honour.
Cyril Roy Chisholm was a shop boy at Goulburn from 29
April 1914 until he resigned on 3 March 1915. He enlisted
at Liverpool the next Monday, 8 March. Many other
men whose names are included had resigned, perhaps in
ignorance, before immediately enlisting. He died in the
charge on Hill 60 at Gallipoli.
Alfred Bembrick Christie, an electrical junior at Rozelle,
was underage when he wanted to enlist in 1914 so he walked
away from his employment in Sydney to enlist in Melbourne
under a false name (Alfred Delaney) and age. He served and
died under that name, though the Australian War Memorial,
and his headstone, record both. It would seem that he would
have little claim to inclusion on any of the NSWGR&T Rolls
of Honour. However, an Honour Board was unveiled for the
Line and Bond Testing Staff at Rozelle on 25 July 191729 and
it does include Alfred Bembrick Christie.
The 1 January 1918 issue of Railway and Tramway Magazine
included paragraph-long obituaries for eight railwaymen
who had died on active service, including Private P R Mears,
who, it is stated, had been employed in the Hamilton Loco
Sheds. Percy Roland Mears did serve and did die in France in
November 1917. He lists his calling on his Attestation Papers
26 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History
Ernest Stanley Gowenlock
E
rnest Stanley Gowenlock was born on 20 August 1890
in Sydney. He joined the Tramways in Sydney as a
casual conductor in October 1911 but was unable to
work for a month after he was knocked down by a ‘motor
car’ while walking along the road in the National Park: he
sued, and recovered £10 damages. His employment was made
permanent in June 1912. In April 1915 he was released from
duty to enlist in the AIF at Sydney.
Initially allotted to the Field Ambulance, he landed at
Gallipoli in August 1915. He spent 3 days in hospital while
there, and returned to Alexandria in January 1916, and was
promoted to Lance Corporal, and then Corporal. In June 1916
he was sent to France. In March 1917 he transferred from the
Field Ambulance to the infantry, and in May was sent to an
officer cadet school at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was
appointed 2nd Lieutenant and sent to France and re-joined
his battalion in September 1917. Two more two-week periods
of training interrupted his service until on 9 April 1918 he
was wounded in action at Hamel sur Corbie and admitted to a
casualty clearing station, where he died the following day, 10
April 1918. He was buried in Namps-au-Val Military cemetery,
11 miles SW of Amiens. War pensions were granted to his
widow, Jessie, and two children, Ada Maie Joyce and Ernest
Kelso. (RM)
William Charles Bailey

W
illiam Charles Bailey (Service Number 706) was LEFT: The ‘King’s Letter’
born at Curlewis, on 21 May 1883. In October which accompanied
the Memorial Plaque,
1908 he gained temporary employment as
or ‘Dead Man’s Penny’.
a porter in the Murrurundi district, and this was soon Although these
confirmed as a permanent position. By February 1910 he documents are generic,
was a 3rd Class Shunter, and eighteen months later a Goods this example is not that
Guard. He was granted leave to join the Expeditionary sent to William Bailey’s
family. Jennifer Edmonds
Forces a month after the outbreak of the war and enlisted at photo
Rosebery Park immediately.
BELOW: The Memorial
He joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on Plaque of William Charles
12 April 1915, so probably landed at Gallipoli on Anzac Bailey. Note that each
Day or soon thereafter. Three weeks later he was certainly 'Dead Man's Penny' was
on Gallipoli, as it is recorded that he was promoted to cast, though a few were
engraved. No rank or
Sergeant. He would seem to have served for virtually the
other details are given,
duration of the campaign, being evacuated only three emphasising the equality
weeks before the general evacuation in mid-December of sacrifice. THNSW
1915, due to frostbite to his feet. In Egypt he was Collection. Jennifer
Edmonds photo
further promoted to Company Sergeant
Major. He then travelled through he was buried alive
Marseilles to France, arriving in by a shell explosion,
June 1916. most agree that he
He was killed in action at was killed by the
Pozières between 5 and 6 August concussion from a
1916. Of particular anxiety to his high-explosive shell,
family was the arrival in Werris which left his body with no
Creek, of a telegram from him, apparent external injuries. Most
apparently in London, stating agree that in the urgency of
‘Am well, best love’, on 13 August, battle he was buried close to the
when he was in fact dead. The trench, though the exact location
military later explained that was not recorded. This location
telegrams from soldiers could take is lost and he is remembered on
18 days to deliver. the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial,
There are several reports of his death Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France. The
given by comrades at the subsequent Memorial Plaque given to his family after
Court of Enquiry into his probable fate. While the war is now held by Transport Heritage NSW
one describes a massive and rapidly fatal shrapnel and is shown adjacent. (BP)
wound to his face and another suggests that he died when

Record card for William Charles Bailey. His memorial plaque is part of the THNSW collection. NSW State Archives NRS 12922

Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 27

Record card for Hector Roy Olsen. Killed in action is ruled through, and in 1921 he is 'Written off books as resigned'. The note at right cites
a letter of 13 July 1920 seeking a certificate to be delivered c/o his brother at the DS Office Blayney (?), but his brother did not know his
whereabouts. NSW State Archives NRS 12922
as ‘Cleaner’ – presumably in the sense of a step on the career
Who Were These Men
path to Fireman and Driver – but is included in no Roll of
Honour and he has no employment record card. He may be The detailed analysis of 1219 biographies will take some time.
the Percy Mears who was working as a pickman on the West First impressions from those working on the project are that
Maitland to Greta duplication in 191430. they were nearly all very young and from the lowest ranks
Whether these three men should have been included on of railway and tramway employment, often with only a few
the board or not, the simple fact is that they were not, and months of career behind them. For such young, and selected-
no suggestion has been entertained that the board should be as-fit, men, they spent much of their military lives sick with
deliberately modified from its 1924 state. Their biographies, infectious and other diseases away from the front. The 470 of
however, are included in the total set. the 1222 biographies which end with a report that as there
is no known grave they are remembered at the Lone Pine

William James Gannon

W
illiam Gannon, (Service
Number 690) was born on 30
January 1895, in Parramatta.
He began working in the Railways on 1
March 1911, as a junior clerk in Sydney.
On 14 September 1914, he was given
leave from the Railways to join the AIF
at the age of 21.
On 19 September 1915, he
proceeded to join the Mediterranean
Expeditionary Force at the Gallipoli
Peninsula. Admitted to the hospital on
8 December 1915, for what would soon
be discovered as diphtheria, he was
transferred to many different hospitals
in Mudros, Alexandria, and Mustapha
over December and January, but would
finally be discharged at Cairo on 8
January 1916. Disembarked from HMAT
‘Warilda’ in England on 19 July 1916,
and shortly after, on 10 August, he was
found to have committed a crime –
leaving post while on duty. This resulted
in his receiving 168 hours of detention.
He was found to have committed
another crime on 31 August 1916. This
time, absent without leave for 6 days,
and the penalty was another 168 hours
of detention, and the forfeiture 6 days’
pay.
On 17 October 1916, he was
transferred to the Australian Army
Medical Corps and to duty at the
Kitchener Military Hospital in Brighton,
England. He proceeded overseas to
France on 25 January 1917 and marched
into Etaples on 27 January, and about
a month later was taken on strength of
the 2nd Australian Field Ambulance.
On 4 May 1917, he was injured in action
near Bullecourt while working as a
stretcher bearer. Suffering a gunshot
wound to the leg, which resulted in
fractured bones, he was admitted
to hospital in Rouen and died of his
wounds the next day, 5 May. The burial
was in St Sever Cemetery Extension,
Haute-Normandie, France.
His next of kin, his mother, received
a number of personal items following
his death, including letters, a diary, a
fountain pen, a belt, and two knives. In
addition to this, she was also given the
1914/15 Star, the British War Medal, and
the Victory Medal on his behalf. (LS)

28 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History

Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux or the Menin Gate31 emphasise
the awfulness of the enterprise.
Medals and Mementoes
All Australian service personnel who served in the Great War
were potentially entitled to three campaign medals.
The 1914/1915 Star required service in any theatre of war
against the Central European powers during 1914 and 1915.
Those who fought at Gallipoli received this medal, but
those who only served later in France and Belgium did not.
The British War Medal required 28 days service in an
active theatre of war, generally between the outbreak of
hostilities in August 1914 and the Armistice in November
1918. Certain later service such as naval mine clearing and
service in the Baltic and Russia was included.
The Victory Medal was awarded to all those who had
received the 1914 Star32, the 1914/1915 Star or most of those
who had received the British War Medal.
These medals were not available until after the war,
and, in the case of soldiers who had died, were given to
members of their families by a strict hierarchy, and not
according to any will, or next of kin nomination.
For the next of kin of soldiers who had died two further
mementoes were made.
The Memorial Plaque and Scroll were announced in
1920. Although the two items were linked, production
The sections of the Great Sydney Honour Board were completely restored by September 2018 and taken into storage at the Heritage Store,
Chullora, pending re-installation at Sydney Station. One of the units has been unpacked for inspection, while at top right others are still in
their substantial transport crates. THNSW Photo. Jennifer Edmonds.
times and delay in the delivery of plaques to Australia
meant that they were often delivered individually. The
plaque is often known colloquially as a ‘Dead Man’s Penny.
In general, from surviving records, families valued all these
objects and there was occasionally dispute, sometimes bitter,
as to who would receive and hold them.
Acknowledgements
The task of identifying the 1219 names, often with variant
spellings, locating their Employment Record Cards at
Kingswood, their records at the Australian War Memorial
and the National Archives and then writing the biographies
has been undertaken by Dugald Black, Gordon Burr, James
Dalton, Geoff Lillico, Peter Marshall, Richard Mathews,
Bill Phippen and Lily Sommer. Special thanks are also due
to Adam Lindsay (Executive Director, State Archives and
Records), Martyn Killion (Manager, Public Access) and the
staff at NSW State Archives and Records for easing the task
of locating 1219 employment records from 194 file boxes.
Rhett Lindsay (Archivist, Engagement & Access Services) of
that institution was instrumental in locating crucial images
and plans. The essay has been critiqued by Angela Phippen.
Bob Merchant enthusiastically supplied much detail from his
research into the 300 tramway men among the 1219.
Australian Railway History • November 2018 • 29
Donald Henderson Arthurson
Donald Arthurson. AWM website P11264001
D
onald Henderson Arthurson was born on 3 January
1899 at Woollahra in Sydney, and he attended the
Superior Public School at Leichhardt. He joined the
NSWGR&T as a Junior Porter in the Traffic Branch, Sydney
District, on 11 August 1915. He stayed a Junior Porter for the
duration of his employment.
On 12 January 1916 he enlisted in the AIF at the rank of
Private (Service Number 5032) and was assigned to the 16th
Reinforcements to the 2nd Infantry Battalion. He nominated
his mother, Mrs Edith Margaret Arthurson of the Fire Station
at Leichhardt, as his next of kin. He gave his age at enlistment
as 18 years, whereas in fact he was only 17. It was in February
1936, when his mother wrote to AIF Base Records pointing
this out, that this fact finally registered (she had mentioned
it before in a letter to AIF Base Records in September 1916,
wanting to know his whereabouts). By then it was too late to
Record card for Donald Arthurson. Almost all the cards of men who died are marked in red ink with similar notations. Note the 1899
birthdate at top. NSW State Archives NRS 12922
30 • November 2018 • Australian Railway History
amend any of his records, including information held by the
Australian War Memorial.
Donald embarked at Sydney for Egypt aboard the SS
‘Makarini’ on 5 April 1916, disembarking at Suez on 1 May
1916. While in Egypt, on 24 May 1916 he was allotted to
the 14th Training Battalion as reinforcements to the 54th
Battalion and subsequently embarked at Alexandria for
France on 21 June 1916. He joined the Battalion in France on 3
August 1916.
While serving in France he suffered a number of ailments.
These included ‘trench feet’, which led to him being
hospitalised for the first half of November 1916 and confined
to Base Depot from then until 6 December 1916. On 16 March
1917 he was admitted to hospital with tonsillitis and was
not discharged until 6 April 1917. He re-joined his unit on 17
April 1917 and was killed in action at Bullecourt on 15 May
1917, aged 18 years and 4 months. In the Red Cross Enquiry
Bureau file for Donald there is general consensus among
witness statements describing the circumstances of his death,
that “he was in a dugout with a number of others when a
shell exploded, burying them all.” Another witness stated: “A
shell exploded, burying 15. A party dug them out and found
10 were dead. I helped to bury them in the Sunken Rd and
Arthurson was among the number. … I do not think it would
be very easy to trace the graves, as the place has been under
heavy shell fire.”
In accordance with the custom prevailing at the time,
Donald’s effects were sent to his father, Mr Kenneth
Arthurson, of the Fire Station at Leichhardt.
In a letter dated in 15 March 1923, responding to an
enquiry from his mother asking for details of his gravesite,
AIF Base Records said that the Graves Section had not yet
succeeded in locating his resting place, and further that: “The
vicinity of Bullecourt was repeatedly the scene of heavy firing
during April and May 1917, and it is quite possible all traces of
his burial place were obliterated by shell fire”. As his gravesite
was never found, Donald is commemorated at the Villers-
Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France.
(DB)
Article References
Commemorating the NSWGR&T Dead of the Great War.
1
This title is given to the object by the author without
official endorsement.
2
The list, as printed in the 1921 Annual Report is
taken as the correct figure, though as this essay
discusses other names should be included.
3
1919 Annual Report
4
Ken Inglis. Sacred Places. War Memorials in the
Australian Context The Miegunyah Press 2008.
5
The name of the place is a subject of debate. For the
purposes of this essay Sydney is used, notably
to refer to the ‘country’ section of the station.
During the time of assembly of the Honour Board
the suburban electric platforms, undoubtedly
correctly called ‘Central’, did not exist.
6
The State Booking Office, as distinct from the
Interstate Booking Office, was situated on the
northern side of the assembly platform, between
the two passageways which lead to the Tramway
Colonnade. Until recently it was the location
of the Australian Railway Historical Society
Bookshop.
7
The record card in NRS 12922 held at NSW State
Archives and Records has this name.
8
Bill Phippen ARH December 2015 Finding the Gallipoli
Dead
9
This, the first engagement of Australian troops on
the Western Front has been described as the
‘worst 24 hours in Australia’s entire history’.
(Ross McMullin ‘Disaster at Fromelles’ Wartime
Issue 36).
10
These terms occur on almost all NRS 12922 record
cards.
11
This is the large circulation space at the northern end
of the platforms proper. Current Sydney Trains
terminology is the ‘Grand Concourse’.
12
The erection of war memorials and honour boards
was not only a reverence for the dead, and those
who exposed themselves to great danger for a
greater good, but also a political act to promote
recruiting.
13
NSW Archives and Records NRS 12922 11/16672
14
Although the extra cabinets are shown occupying
the extreme left and extreme right positions, it
cannot be known whether the existing cabinets
were moved to the left, to maintain the inscribed
names in the nominally correct date of death
order, left to right.
15
The board comprised four distinct sections,
separated by windows. The overall width was
about 40 feet or 12 metres.
16
Railway and Tramway Magazine August 1918 p447
17
Railway and Tramway Magazine September 1921 p33
18
NSW State Archives and Records NRS 17514
19
Page 153
20
Personal communication with Peter Neve, on-site
curator of the heritage store in the old Eveleigh
Paint Shop at the time.
21
The Eastern Carriage Shed in Sydney Yard was
known as ‘Bondi’, and the shunting neck at
Macdonaldtown Carriage Sheds was known as
‘Bronte’.
22
The Board contained 1215 names. The four names
added at the end in 2018 raise the total to 1219.
23
Murray and Flynn do appear on the Roll of Honour,
but only once, not twice.
24
Per-Way is an abbreviation of ‘permanent way’
and applied to the track and the workers who
construct and maintain it.
25
NRS 12922 covers employees with date of birth
before 1900. Other series cover post-1900 dates
of birth. No name on the Honour Board has been
identified as being that of a man born after 1900.
26
Pearse’s National Archives file contains a full copy of
his death certificate. 13 April is correct.
27
NSW Government Gazette 4 June 1915 p3368 RH
Column line 24
28
NSW Government Gazette 27 June 1918 p2961 LH
Column line 72
29
Railway and Tramway Budget 1 October 1917 p23
30
NSW Government Gazette 4 June 1915 p3279 RH
Column line 11
31
A significant proportion of the Great War dead
have no known grave. The Lone Pine Memorial,
Villers-Bretonneux and the Menin Gate are
large memorials in Turkey, France and at Ypres
in Belgium respectively where their names are
displayed and honoured. There is a distinct Lone
Pine Cemetery with known burials.
32
The 1914 Star required service in France in 1914 and
as Australian forces were not in Europe at that
time is not relevant to this essay.

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An Up troop train, hauled by a P class locomotive has
just passed Waratah station in 1917. ARHSnsw RRC 028519