The war’s opening actions were fought by riflemen with bayonets and mounted troopers with lancers; by 1918 war was waged with artillery shells and gas, tanks and aircraft, and infantrymen armed with automatic weapons and bombs. Some 16 million people were killed during the war, including 6.5 million civilians, and 20 people million were wounded.

The war ended the European imperial wars of expansion of the nineteenth century; destroyed the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Ottoman Empires; and brought down the Russian Tsarist rule.

After the war the competing ideologies of communism and fascism grew in parts of Europe, while other parts of the world also saw a renewal of nationalism. There would not have been a Second World War – the bloodiest conflict in human history – if it had not been for the Great War.

Australia was spared the worst of the war’s destruction, and in 1918 the country celebrated the Entente powers’ hard-fought victory over Germany and the central powers. But this victory came at a heavy price.

From a population of less than five million some 416,000 Australians enlisted in the military and about 330,000 served overseas. Some 62,000 Australians died during the war and 156,000 were wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. More Australians died in the Great War than in all of Australia’s other wars and conflicts put together.

Australia emerged from the Great War with a renewed sense of an Australian national identity – the spirit of Anzac. But Australia was also a society deeply divided along sectarian lines, split by bitter referendums on the introduction of conscription for overseas service in 1916 and 1917. Australia was also very much a society in mourning.

Some 200 men from Kiama served during the war and 44 never made it home. There was also a strong military presence in the town, with the showground being converted into a tent-lined military camp. The camp was the site of the New South Wales Signalling School and it was also where new infantry recruits were trained. Some of these reinforcements ultimately joined the battalions overseas.

Kiama’s best-known soldier was Colonel Colin Dunmore Fuller DSO, the younger brother of the New South Wales Premier Sir George Fuller, and son of property owner George Fuller of Dunmore. Colonel Fuller served with the 6th Light Horse Regiment throughout the war, from Gallipoli in 1915 to the Sinai–Palestine campaigns in 1916–18, and once wounded. In 1917 he was award the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his successful handling of the regiment in the battle of Gaza.

Fuller returned to Australia in June 1919. He became the leading figure among Kiama’s returned men and was extremely influential in determining the eventual form of Kiama’s memorial.

A Kiama soldiers’ memorial fund was established in the early 1920s even as the memorial’s form was still being debated. One of the first suggestions for a war memorial was a drinking fountain at the surf beach reserve. One subscriber to the fund suggested a tower be built to act as “a Memorial pure and simple”. Another suggestion was for a memorial community hall.

By 1924 pressure was mounting on the Kiama council to do “something to perpetuate the memory of the soldiers”. In mid-March a well-attended meeting of Returned Soldiers met in the council chambers to discuss the final proposals for the soldier’s memorial: a new memorial district hospital or a memorial park? Colonel Fuller spoke in favour of the memorial park.

He did not want a memorial to the Returned Men but “to those whose bodies lay in distant lands”, something in the town that would be seen by tourists and residents alike. Kiama’s sacrifice would not be adequately commemorated, he said, with a hospital built in Jamberoo Municipality: “Fancy a Kiama Memorial in Jamberoo. Did Jamberoo or Gerringong erect theirs in Kiama Municipality?” .

Others spoke for and against both proposals but ultimately the meeting voted to support the motion for a memorial district hospital.

Fuller did not give up. A week later a public meeting was held in the town hall to decide the matter. Advocates for the hospital argued it would act as a “living memorial” to those who did not return. Fuller, however, called for a monument and the redevelopment of Central Park.

Again, the issue was hotly debated. Mr J. Drennan, for example, said he had relatives laying in the soil in France, but “did not want a big stone stuck up in the street to keep the fact in his memory. It would be of no benefit to anyone.” This time Fuller proved persuasive.

When put to a vote, a large majority supported his motion for a monument and park.

After years of indecision and debate, Kiama’s Memorial Arch and its honour roll were unveiled by Premier Sir George Fuller in a formal ceremony on Saturday – Anzac Day – 25 April 1925. The monument states in cement and stone:

This memorial arch has been erected by the residents of Kiama to the glory of God and in grateful recognition of the sacrifices of those who from this district served in the Great War 1914–1918.

The honour roll on the arch lists the names of more than 200 men from Kiama who served in the war, including those of the 44 men who made the supreme sacrifice.

A search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission reveals the details of several other soldiers who were in some way connected to or associated with Kiama but are not listed on Kiama’s honour roll.

One man who is not commemorated was 26-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Owen Glendower Howell-Price DSO MC. He was born in Kiama when his father, the Reverend John Howell Price, was the Church of England rector for Kiama and Gerringong. Owen Howell-Price served on Gallipoli, where he was awarded a Military Cross (MC) for his efforts in the battle of Lone Pine in August 1915.

The following year in France he received the DSO for commanding the 3rd Battalion during the horrific battles of Pozières and Mouquet Farm on the Somme. On 3 November 1916 his battalion was near Flers when he was shot in the head. He died the next day. His final words were: “Give my love to the battalion.”

One Kiama family whose service and sacrifice is acknowledged on the memorial arch and honour roll is the Farquharsons of Thompson Street. Walter and Frank were the two oldest sons of Percy and Emma Farquharson’s five children. Both brothers served abroad in the AIF and several of their letters home were published in the Kiama Independent.

Walter was well known within the community as a prominent member of the surf and football clubs, and as a postman at Kiama Post Office. He volunteered for the AIF in May 1915, just as the first news of the Anzacs’ landing on Gallipoli reached Australia.

Having previously served for several years in the cadets, Walter was quickly promoted to corporal. In June he left Australia with the newly raised 19th Battalion of the 5th Brigade. After a brief period training in Egypt the battalion landed on Gallipoli towards the end of August Offensive.

The battalion quickly settled into the routine of trench life around Hill 60. Walter afterwards described this reality in a letter home to his youngest brother:

You can imagine the time we had often with the Turkish machine guns turned on us. I became, and am still, an expert in making myself scare in a very small space. It is marvellous the space one can get into when pushed.

From mid-September until the evacuation from the Gallipoli in December, the battalion held Pope’s Hill. “Of all the God-forsaken places on the Peninsula give me Pope’s,” Walter wrote to his brother. “We were just hanging on the skin of our teeth.” He went on:

To describe the place, just imagine yourself in a very deep narrow gully with very steep hills rising on either side. Pope’s was perched some 150 to 200 yards on top of one of these hills, almost straight up and the Turks 30 to 100 yards away.

There was no hesitation or reluctance on Walter’s part when the Anzacs were evacuated. In a surprisingly frank statement, he dubbed the whole Gallipoli campaign as “one huge mistake”.

After a brief period in Egypt in 1916 the 19th Battalion moved to France along with the much of the AIF. The destructive firepower and mass casualties of the Western Front eclipsed anything the Anzacs endured on Gallipoli.

In late July the Australians joined the major British offensive on the Somme, capturing Pozières. Walter, by now an experienced sergeant, was shot through his right arm during the battle and was subsequently evacuated to Britain.

Writing home from a hospital in Cardiff, Wales, he told his mother that he had been “exceedingly lucky” having only received a “flesh wound”, although it would be sometime before he would be able to use his right hand again. Walter spent the rest of the year convalescing in Britain. By the time he re-joined the 19th Battalion in February 1917 he admitted that he “hardly knew any of the lads”.

The following month the newspaper reported that Walter had been recommended to be sent home. This report must have provided hope for Percy and Emma, but it would turn out to be false hope.

Instead, the 19th Battalion and the 5th Brigade were involved in heavy fighting on the Hindenburg Line, defeating a large German counter-attack at Lagnicourt.

In what would be his final letter home, dated 21 April, Walter described his part in the battle: “This is the first time I can truthfully say I have used any rifle to shoot at a living target.” He thought the 5th Brigade captured 2,000 German prisoners, while the hills were “covered with their dead”. Many of the German prisoners were young boys or old men, he wrote. But he also cautioned his parents that there was still a long way to go before Germany’s final defeat.

On 3 May the 19th Battalion participated in the bloody attack on Bullecourt, an outpost of the Hindenburg Line. Capturing the German trenches, the 19th Battalion held its position for several hours until forced to withdraw.

Despite being wounded three times, Walter stayed in the trenches all day until 10.30 pm. Walter and another sergeant remained behind to care for a wounded officer. Corporal Lanni Ward later stated that when he last saw the two sergeants they were going over a slight rise through an area where German shells were falling “fairly hard”.

They never made it back. The other sergeant’s remains were found later that day, but Walter’s body was never recovered.

Another Kiama soldier, Private W.G. Dawes, wrote home about the battle a few weeks later, calling it “a perfect hell”. The private wrote:

Wally Farquharson … led his section over the top in splendid fashion, and those near him that day say, his voice could be heard above the scream of the shells and the rattle of the machine guns, urging the boys on. He was splendid.

Walter was not officially confirmed as killed in action until January 1918. He was 25 years old.

It is difficult to imagine the grief and anxiety Percy and Emma experienced as they waited for the official confirmation that their eldest son was dead. Adding to their burden was the knowledge that their second son, Frank, was now serving in the AIF.

Frank had wanted to join up with his older brother Walter but their parents persuaded the 16-year old to wait until he was 18. Frank did wait, but to prepare himself for the harsh life of a soldier he served in the cadets and slept outside in a tent. In March 1917, shortly after his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the AIF.

He left Australia for England that May, and after several months’ training he embarked for France and was transferred to the 33rd Battalion in January 1918.

On 17 April Frank was listed as being wounded in action “shell shocked”. He had been buried alive when a shell exploded nearby.

He was quickly dug out but later that day was he sent back out of the line. He wrote home that he “had to be taken out” because his voice had gone and he “was crying like a big kid.” Frank was left virtually speechless for 24 hours. By 27 April he had recovered from what he described as “a bit of a break down” and re-joined his battalion in early May.

On 8 August the 33rd Battalion participated in the battle of Amiens – the “black day of the German army” – breaking through the German lines for an unprecedented 12-kilometre advance. On 30 August, however, Frank was wounded in the abdomen. He was evacuated to a casualty clearing station, where he died the next day. He was 19 years old.

There is no written record of the Farquharsons’ reaction when they learned of the loss of their second son. Perhaps they found some solace in the words they received from Frank’s commanding officer who described the young private as an excellent soldier, “gallant and determined in action”, and always unselfish and thoughtful towards others.

Percy and Emma later chose the following lines as the epitaph for Frank’s grave in France; a grave they only ever saw in a photograph:

A brave young life

That promised well

At the will of God

A hero fell

For this personalised epitaph they were charged 15 shillings and nine pence by the Imperial War Graves Commission.

Almost eight years after Walter’s death and nearly seven years from Frank’s, two members of the Farquharson family laid a wreath on Anzac Day 1925 when Kiama’s memorial arch was unveiled.

Today, a century after the Anzac’s landing on Gallipoli, it is easy to see Kiama’s memorial as a monument to long-forgotten names. But, as I have shown tonight, every name represents an individual life; someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s husband, someone’s father. As he cut the cord that released the flags covering the memorial arch at its unveiling in 1925, Sir George Fuller appealed: “Always remember these men who fought and died to save our country.”

We will remember them.  

Dr Karl James

Senior Historian

Australian War Memorial