The City of Parramatta Research and Collection Services, along with a team of dedicated volunteers, compiled the biographies of 1,962 soldiers, seamen and nurses from the Parramatta District – the culmination of a four-year project. These stories of dedication, courage and loss are featured in articles listed on this page. For the publications, please click on publications.
World War One
Parramatta’s Memorial to Their World War One Soldiers – The Prince Alfred Square Memorial
Following the end of the Great War thousands of memorials were erected in suburbs and country towns across Austral...
World War One (1914 – 1919)
Timeline
World War 1 (WWI) was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 ...
World War One – Red Cross Society, Parramatta Branch
The Australian Red Cross was established in 1914 by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson when she formed a branch of the British Re...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Alexander Hugh Hamilton
Private Alexander Hugh Hamilton enlisted on 27 January 1915 in Liverpool as part of the 5 Infantry Brigade, 17 Infantry ...
Gallipoli Diary, 11 July 1915, … on the element of surprise
Sir Ian Hamiltons diary entry for 11 July 1915
… worked in my office from early morning till 12.45. The whole scheme ...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Percy Freeman
Percy Freeman was born in 1897 in Parramatta, New South Wales and worked as a carter prior to enlistment at the age of 2...
World War One – War Chest Society, Parramatta
In 1917, Mayor Alderman F.J.Thomas called a meeting to discuss the establishment of the Parramatta branch of the War Che...
World War One – Joseph Cook and the Peace Treaty at Versailles
Joseph Cook, Image from National Library of Australia
The End of World War One – Parramatta was involved&nb...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Ormond Julian Lake
Ormond Julian Lake was born in 1899 in Bega, New South Wales to Quartermaster Sergeant Arthur Lake of the Parramatta Squ...
World War One – Voluntary Aid Detachment, Parramatta
Back Row: Misses Eades, Funnell, Ross, Harvey, Sherlock, A.Readett. Second Row: Misses Holt, R.Brown, M.Summons, Paterso...
World War One – Weapons of War – Submarines Part 1
Perfect Work, by John Whiting, from Abbott, Aircraft and Submarines, 1918
At the start of World ...
World War One – Parramatta Soldier – Alexander Finlayson
Alexander was single, working as a butcher. Alexander and his family were living at Church Street, Parramatta, they...
The Indian Mountain Battery and Mule Corps, Gallipoli, 1915
One of the lesser known facts of the Australian and New Zealand engagement at Gallipoli is that these troops fought alon...
World War One – Parramatta Nurses – Edith Danson Rush
Australian Hospital Ward, Egypt, by A W Savage, State Library of New South Wales, pxe_698_a093126r
Edith was 34 yea...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – John Alexander Hutchinson
Sergeant John Alexander Hutchinson was a 20 year old telegraph lineman born in Yarrawanga, Victoria. He was the son...
Alexander Robertson – Parramatta Soldier – Killed in Action
Alexander Robertson enlisted as a private (later Trooper) with the 11th Reinforcements, 1st Light Horse Regiment (LHR) a...
World War One – Parramatta Nurses – Sister Edith Faber
Sister Edith Faber, 2 Australian General Hospital, reproduced from half-tone print from Parramatta Soldiers, Cumberlan...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Alexander Bransdon Gamack
Alexander Bransdon Gamack was an 18-year-old shop assistant from Parramatta who was the son of Mr. and Mrs. James Gamack...
Australian Nurses in World War One, Arthur Butler
Medical and nursing sisters of 3rd Australian General Hospital (3AGH) in the tent lines with patients, 1915. Source: www...
Ian Hamilton Gallipoli Diaries – ANZAC Landing, 25 April, 1915
[On the 25 April the Allied assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula began under the
guidance of the Commande...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Arthur John Ormes
Private Arthur John Ormes, 20th (later 2nd) Battalion of Summer Hill, New South Wales. A photo engraver prior to enlisti...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – William Ashcroft
William was a 29 year-old miner when he enlisted 28 December 1915. His wife Ruby Pearl, is listed as being in the care o...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Private Francis Bede Kennedy – Died of wounds
Private Francis Bede Kennedy, copy from Parramatta Soldiers, Cumberland Argus, 1920
Francis Bede Kennedy or ‘Ken’ to ...
World War One – The Maori Battalion and New Zealand Brigade
Maori soldier in the Apex trenches at Gallipoli, 30 November, 1915
At the outbreak of World War One Brita...
World War One Cartoons – SATAN’S PARTNER – Raemaeker
Bernhardi: “War is as divine as eating and drinking”Satan: “Here is a partner for me”[The following is an extende...
Sergeant Barber, Battle Of Hangard Wood, Villers-Bretonneux, France, April 1918
From March to April 1918 sections of the Australian Imperial Force played an integral part barring the German offensive ...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Alexander Richardson Kyle
Private Alexander Richardson Kyle (service number 7497) was a 30-year-old engineer's mechanic born in Belfast, Northern ...
World War One – Battle of Fromelles – Parramatta Soldiers – George Folkard captured by the Germans
George was a 22 year-old bank officer who worked
at the Bank of New South Wales, Walcha when he e...
World War One - William Castles - Darug Soldier
William Castles was a 19 year old coal carter whose mother Ada Locke and father Thomas Castles were stated to be dead wh...
World War One – Battle of Beersheba
The Battle of Beersheba is one of the most notable mounted charges by the Australian Light Horse Regiments. On 31 Octobe...
Account of the Gallipoli Landing by Ernest Herrod
Ernest Edward Herrod (1885-1966), was born on 21 June 1885 at Redfern, Sydney. On 29 August 1914 he married Kathlee...
World War One, first successful gas attack, Second Battle of Ypres
In April 1915 the allied lines at the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres ran from the cross-roads a...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – William Ashcroft
William was a 29 year-old miner when he enlisted 28 December 1915. His wife Ruby Pearl, is listed as being in the care o...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Arthur John Ormes
Private Arthur John Ormes, 20th (later 2nd) Battalion of Summer Hill, New South Wales. A photo engraver prior to enlisti...
World War One – Parramatta Soldier – Thomas Cranney – Killed in action
When he was 34 years old Thomas Bernard Cranney volunteered for service in Dubbo. He did this on the 13 Octobe...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Lance Bathie
Lance Bathie was a blue-eyed 29 year old iron moulder who served his apprenticeship with Bail and Co., Auburn,bef...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Arthur James Mills
Arthur James Mills was a 31 year old dentist when he enlisted on the 18 December 1914.While he lived with his wife Flo...
World War One – Parramatta Soldiers – Andrew George Christian
Andrew Christian was from Coogee but married into a Parramatta family of Mrs E Flook. A public servant, he enliste...