
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

Following the end of the Great War thousands of memorials were erected in suburbs and country towns across Austral...

Timeline
World War 1 (WWI) was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 ...

The Australian Red Cross was established in 1914 by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson when she formed a branch of the British Re...

Private Alexander Hugh Hamilton enlisted on 27 January 1915 in Liverpool as part of the 5 Infantry Brigade, 17 Infantry ...

Sir Ian Hamiltons diary entry for 11 July 1915
… worked in my office from early morning till 12.45. The whole scheme ...

Percy Freeman was born in 1897 in Parramatta, New South Wales and worked as a carter prior to enlistment at the age of 2...

In 1917, Mayor Alderman F.J.Thomas called a meeting to discuss the establishment of the Parramatta branch of the War Che...

Joseph Cook, Image from National Library of Australia
The End of World War One – Parramatta was involved&nb...

Ormond Julian Lake was born in 1899 in Bega, New South Wales to Quartermaster Sergeant Arthur Lake of the Parramatta Squ...

Back Row: Misses Eades, Funnell, Ross, Harvey, Sherlock, A.Readett. Second Row: Misses Holt, R.Brown, M.Summons, Paterso...

Perfect Work, by John Whiting, from Abbott, Aircraft and Submarines, 1918
At the start of World ...

Alexander was single, working as a butcher. Alexander and his family were living at Church Street, Parramatta, they...

One of the lesser known facts of the Australian and New Zealand engagement at Gallipoli is that these troops fought alon...

Australian Hospital Ward, Egypt, by A W Savage, State Library of New South Wales, pxe_698_a093126r
Edith was 34 yea...

Sergeant John Alexander Hutchinson was a 20 year old telegraph lineman born in Yarrawanga, Victoria. He was the son...

Alexander Robertson enlisted as a private (later Trooper) with the 11th Reinforcements, 1st Light Horse Regiment (LHR) a...

Sister Edith Faber, 2 Australian General Hospital, reproduced from half-tone print from Parramatta Soldiers, Cumberlan...

Alexander Bransdon Gamack was an 18-year-old shop assistant from Parramatta who was the son of Mr. and Mrs. James Gamack...

Medical and nursing sisters of 3rd Australian General Hospital (3AGH) in the tent lines with patients, 1915. Source: www...

[On the 25 April the Allied assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula began under the
guidance of the Commande...

Private Arthur John Ormes, 20th (later 2nd) Battalion of Summer Hill, New South Wales. A photo engraver prior to enlisti...

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...

Private Francis Bede Kennedy, copy from Parramatta Soldiers, Cumberland Argus, 1920
Francis Bede Kennedy or ‘Ken’ to ...

Maori soldier in the Apex trenches at Gallipoli, 30 November, 1915
At the outbreak of World War One Brita...

Bernhardi: “War is as divine as eating and drinking”Satan: “Here is a partner for me”[The following is an extende...

From March to April 1918 sections of the Australian Imperial Force played an integral part barring the German offensive ...

Private Alexander Richardson Kyle (service number 7497) was a 30-year-old engineer's mechanic born in Belfast, Northern ...

George was a 22 year-old bank officer who worked
at the Bank of New South Wales, Walcha when he e...

William Castles was a 19 year old coal carter whose mother Ada Locke and father Thomas Castles were stated to be dead wh...

The Battle of Beersheba is one of the most notable mounted charges by the Australian Light Horse Regiments. On 31 Octobe...

Ernest Edward Herrod (1885-1966), was born on 21 June 1885 at Redfern, Sydney. On 29 August 1914 he married Kathlee...

In April 1915 the allied lines at the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres ran from the cross-roads a...

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...

Private Arthur John Ormes, 20th (later 2nd) Battalion of Summer Hill, New South Wales. A photo engraver prior to enlisti...

When he was 34 years old Thomas Bernard Cranney volunteered for service in Dubbo. He did this on the 13 Octobe...

Lance Bathie was a blue-eyed 29 year old iron moulder who served his apprenticeship with Bail and Co., Auburn,bef...

Arthur James Mills was a 31 year old dentist when he enlisted on the 18 December 1914.While he lived with his wife Flo...

Andrew Christian was from Coogee but married into a Parramatta family of Mrs E Flook. A public servant, he enliste...