General News
22 April, 2021
Telling the tales of those who served
TERANG and District Historical Society Inc members Margaret McIntosh and Tom Richies have co-authored a new book which tells the story behind the names inscribed on the Terang War Memorial.
TERANG and District Historical Society Inc members Margaret McIntosh andTom Richies have co-authored a newbook which tells the story behind the names inscribed on the Terang War Memorial.
Mrs McIntosh said the inspiration for the book came more than five years ago while looking at the hundreds of names which memorialise those who enlisted or fell in World War I and II.
“We looked at the memorial and there were a whole lot of names on three sides, which were just initials and surnames with very few Christian names,” she said.
“We just looked and thought, ‘I wonder who these people are?’
She began the process of researching the history of the men and women when Mr Richies, who had recently completed work on a booklet on The Sisters Honour Board for the soldiers at The Sisters, offered to lend a hand.
“He did a lot of work on the service records for the men, figuring out exactly where they were when certain battles had taken place to find out if they were involved,” MrsMcIntosh said.
“I wrote where they had come from, who they were, what they had done before, where they were educated and, when they had returned after the war, what they did afterwards.
“There are some fantastic stories of what these people had gone on to do, but there are also some rather tragic ones.
“Our plan was to document who they were and what they did because if we didn’t know, how are future generations going to know?”
Mrs McIntosh said the project had been in the works for five years, with the co-authors investing countless hours in to researching the history of those who served.
“There was one man we discovered had listed under an alias,” she said.
“Eventually I found a court record which listed his alias, and the solicitor had asked why he went under that name and he said it was the name he enlisted under and was on his discharge paper.
“Tom spent hours and hours searching every enlistment under that surname, as we didn’t know his first name, just to find our man.
“Eventually he got it. There were hundreds of enlistments, so that alone was a mammoth task.”
She said identifying the men was, in some cases, a challenge as finding a service record or a connection to the area was tricky.
“Not every soldier from Terang is on the memorial, there was probably as many we found who aren’t listed on the memorial,” Mrs McIntosh said.
“You would have to draw a circle around Terang, probably 15 to 20 minutes around the town, to form the area where all these guys came from.
“It was a challenge to identify everyone, it took a long time, but researching their lives was interesting and I love that sort of stuff.”
Mrs McIntosh said the heart of the book was to ensure the lives of the individuals who made sacrifices to serve their country would be remembered, or in some cases become known to relatives who had lost their family history.
“We want people to remember that their relatives were there,” she said.
“We want to remember and for future generations to remember because a lot of kids at school now will still be connected and it would be nice if they could look at things 10 or 20 years from now and know their great-great grandfather was on the memorial because he fought at war.”
The costs of publication were almost entirely funded under grants received from the Public Records Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We were grateful for their support and hope that the book will keep those names and those people, and what they had done, before the public,” Mrs McIntosh said.
‘They served with courage’ will be officially launched today (Thursday) at the Civic Hall in Terang at 2pm.
Copies will be available for $30, with copies available at the launch, from the Terang Post Office or through the Terang and District Historical Society Inc.