By Charlene Macaulay
A team of volunteers has spent the past five years painstakingly piecing together the biographies of Wyndham’s World War I soldiers and nurses.
Seven Wyndham City Library volunteers have uncovered stories of bravery, tragedy, survival and loss of the locals who served our country and either returned home or were killed in action.
The volunteers went through all the honour boards in the Wyndham area from 1916-18 – including those from the Werribee RSL, Little River Church of England, Little River Mechanic’s Institute, Chirnside Presbyterian Church, Wyndham Presbyterian Church and Werribee Primary School – and used them as a starting point for each biography.
Volunteer Heinz Freisler said the team used a number of resources – including old copies of the
Werribee Shire Banner, Ancestry.com, Findmypast.com.au, the AIF project, the National Archives of Australia and Census data – to cross-reference information and flesh out each individual story.
Each biography contains details such as service number, birth date and place, next of kin, occupation, death and a history that details service, life before enlisting and life after the war.
“That’s the sort of information that we [try to obtain]. Some of the biographies are pretty long, some are very short because there’s not that much information,” Mr Freisler said.
Mr Freisler has been working on the project for the past three years, joining after he retired from the Defence Force.
A number of the biographies are already up on the Wyndham History website, with the rest expected to go online over the next month.
Mr Freisler said the team struggled to get information on a few names, but hoped the community would be able to fill in any blanks.
The launch of the completed biographies will be held on November 12 from 2-3pm at the Plaza Library and will include an exhibition of WWI memorabilia, narratives of the lives of local soldiers and afternoon tea.
Bookings are required, go to www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/libraries or call 8734 2600 to book.
