Memory Park, Penrith

Penrith War Memorial, Memory Park

         
Memory Park in 2013
(Penrith City Library)

The idea of building a war memorial was first mooted in August 1915. At a memorial service to honor the Penrith men who had been killed at the front, a collection was taken up and handed to the mayor, “to form the nucleus of a fund to provide a town memorial of a permanent character to the men who fall in the war.”

World War I officially ended on 11 November 1918. By that time, nearly 60,000 Australians had died fighting overseas. In the years immediately following the war, memorials to these dead soldiers sprung up in almost every town and city across Australia. Penrith was no exception. Some 250 young men from the Penrith District went to the Great War and at least 45 did not return. The Penrith Progress Committee placed an advertisement in the Nepean Times for a public meeting on 22 January to discuss the issue of a public honor roll for Penrith. At the meeting the Penrith Progress Association expressed the opinion that such an Honor Roll should be placed in the main street. It was also suggested that the Honor Roll should list soldiers from Emu, Castlereagh, Jamisontown etc as well as those from the Penrith Municipality. Proposals also included the construction of a memorial hall for the use of the soldiers. However, this option was considered too expensive and a room added to the School of Arts for their use was suggested as an alternative.

It was suggested that an honor roll could be constructed on the corner of High Street and Woodriff Street. Mr E Burrows suggested a committee be formed to investigate designs and cost to be submitted to a further meeting. By November 1919, Mr C. G. Coulter, a prominent city architect, and a personal friend of Mr Arthur Judges, submitted a design, which was approved by the sub-committee and was to be submitted to a public meeting for discussion. The preferred site was a 60 feet by 50 feet plot at the corner of Woodriff and High Streets. The proposal was to contain a fountain and lily pond, at one end of which a tablet of sandstone was to be erected. The tablet was to be overlaid with marble or trachyte slabs bearing the names of local soldiers and beneath it bronze slabs inscribed with the years 1914-1918. Coulter’s estimate of cost for the memorial was under £500. His proposal called for the fountain to be allowed to run for a couple of days a week and also the provision of electric lights. The design was displayed in the window of Mr Arthur Judges pharmacy in High Street.

On 2 December 1919, a public meeting was held in the council chambers to receive the report of the Honor Roll committee. Only 15 attended, prompting Mr Dukes, a committee member, to comment that “some of the members of the committee had been as apathetic as the public about this matter.” A number of proposals had been received and the committee had rejected most as they did not suit Penrith’s requirements or were too expensive. The committee suggested that the monument be erected on the corner of High Street and Woodriff street and that they investigate the purchase of an additional 20 to 30 feet. The committee advised that they had applied to the Defence department for one of the captured German guns to be placed alongside the monument. The cost of the proposed memorial, additional land and fencing was estimated to be £700. A new committee was formed which included the mayor, Rev M G Hinsby, Messrs J Stanton, W S Walker, W H Dukes, A Judges, H Lack,C C Ezzy, O Fletcher, D McDonald, E Starling, D Fitch, L Price, D G McLennan and G Price. The subscription list was started and all monies were to be banked in the Government Savings Bank of NSW. It was decided that the Nepean Times would publish lists of donations from time to time.

By March 1920, a public meeting was held to discuss the progress of the memorial. Apathy about the project was demonstrated by Mr A Judges who commented that “this matter had been sadly neglected and had been postponed very often. It was well to get the matter in hand now.” The committee had raised £115 and it was decided that the committee would hold a number of functions around Anzac Day aimed at bolstering the coffers. Fund raising activities included: a sports day, united service and picture show. The Council was to be approached with a request that it dedicate the piece of land on the corner of High Street and Woodriff Street for the purpose of erecting the memorial.

The May 1920 meeting of the Committee reported £80 being raised from the fund raising activities. A deputation from the local branch of the Returned Soldiers’ League, expressed the view that the money should be devoted to the erection of a soldier’s hall or clubroom. After heated discussion on this matter, it was decided to hold a general meeting of the subscribers on 18 May 1920. This meeting did not resolve the issue. On 22 May 1920 the Nepean Times published an article containing the details of the disagreement about the memorial. The article singled out the returned soldiers for special mention: With regard to the part the returned soldiers should play in the matter, it is well to point out that their position is a delicate one. The movement was started as a citizens’ memorial to pay a tribute to the men (dead and living) of Penrith, who fought in the war…There is nothing wrong in the latter making suggestions, but anything that borders on a demand is distinctly out of place.” Yet another meeting of the subscribers was scheduled to discuss the issue.

The Penrith Soldiers’ Club took umbrage at the comments published in the Nepean Times. At their next meeting, a resolution was passed stating: “That this meeting of returned soldiers of Penrith strongly disapprove of the action taken by the Soldiers’ Memorial Committee in calling a meeting for this night [1 June], limited to subscribers only; whereas a promise had been previously given that the opinion of the returned soldiers would be invited at a public meeting as to the form the memorial would take.”

The meeting of subscribers held on 1 June 1920, showed a balance of £206/10/3 in the bank Correspondence was received with regard to the allotment of one gun trophy to Penrith. The meeting was reminded that the land granted by council for the memorial site was conditional that the council and Minister should approve of the design. The plan would encompass a bandstand and memorial costing £400 with an additional £100 for seating and fencing. The plans were submitted to the War Memorials Advisory Board who stated “The Board reports that it considers it would be better if a more spacious site were selected (as crowds gather around a bandstand) and would urge the council to secure one if possible. The design it considers fairly suitable, but could be improved.” The Board then stated that is was having a revised drawing prepared by the Government architect and would forward at a later date. The Town Clerk asked for more detailed information about the war trophy so that when the application was made it would show that Penrith was making a concerted effort to erect a memorial worthy of the town, and therefore a suitable place to house a first-class gun. The amended plans, including revision by the Government architect, were adopted by the Committee in late September 1920.

On 8 January 1921, the Nepean Times was lamenting the slow progress of the Penrith Soldiers Memorial declaring “the movement here has been crawling along for the last couple of years, and, in fact, has at times almost been in danger of slipping backwards” further declaring that Penrith’s reputation was at stake! The report stated that although £300 had been raised, practically nothing had happened since the previous October. The following week the paper announced that a concert was being arranged. The movement gained momentum. Council was approached to revert to the first agreement, that is, the council would rededicate the original 33 feet agreed upon which would be combined with 20ft purchased by the Committee. It was proposed that an ornamental fence be constructed on the northern and eastern sides, and strong paling fences on the other sides. The Committee also asked council to erect a mounting for the gun on the memorial site.

On 13 August 1921, the Nepean Times ran an article appealing for cash donations to the Memorial fund. It reported that the erection of the fence was well advanced and the Kingswood Brick and Tile Company had donated tiles for the rotunda. The article highlighted the fact that Penrith, a municipality with a population of 3,591, had only donated about £100 in cash, a record that should be improved! By 17 September 1921, the trench mortar promised to the municipality had arrived.

A public meeting held at the end of September 1921 elected the trustees for the Memorial Reserve. The management committee consisted of: O W Fletcher, H Lack, T M Masters, C C Ezzy, A Judges, H Neale, F Barlow, Glen Fulton, W Dukes, T Ransley, H J F Neale and Sam Haines. The meeting reported that two tenders had been received for the construction of the superstructure of the monument in trachyte or granite. One proposal was costed at £180 (including gilded letters) and the other £120. No decision was made at the meeting. The positioning of the trench mortar near the entrance to the reserve and the howitzer under the flagpole was also discussed.

The committee meeting held on 24 October, accepted the tender of Messrs Woods and Collins of Lidcombe (£120). A carnival was planned for the following March to help boost funds for the project. In January 1922, four tenders had been received for the supply of seven trachyte slabs engraved with the names of the Penrith soldiers and a meeting was held on February 2nd to finalise the names to be added to the slabs. The committee determined that any soldier who resided within the Municipality of Penrith at the time of enlistment would be included on the roll.

By June 1922, plans were underway for the official unveiling of the war memorial. Lighting was installed in the general area and the foundations constructed for the war trophies. Finally, in July 1922, nearly 3 1/2 years after war’s end, Memory Park became a reality. It was opened on Saturday 8 July 1922 by the then State Governor, Sir Walter Davidson. A civic reception greeted the Governor at Penrith station upon his arrival. After several welcoming speeches, the official party and the enthusiastic crowd moved on the Memory Park site. Here the Governor, after a variety of patriotic speeches to an estimated crowd of 1,000 people, unveiled seven honour roll tablets, opened the new rotunda (demolished around 1972) and examined the two large trophy guns which had been installed on concrete emplacements on either side of the park. These large guns created considerable interest at the time, one of them being a German 4.5 Howitzer gun manufactured in the Krupps factory in 1918, the other being a trench mortar. These guns were removed when the park was redesigned in recent years. The Governor made himself very popular with school children by declaring a holiday on the following Monday “for all children within reach of Penrith”. To add to the excitement, the ceremony was recorded on film and shown a few days later at the local picture theatre. It is not known whether a copy of this film still exists.

At the time of opening, Memory Park was enclosed by Buzacott fencing on three sides, the western boundary being a temporary rail and wire fence. The main entrance was a lich gate to the High Street frontage. The octagonal rotunda, since demolished, was built by Melville and Moorcroft, the roof being tiled by the local firm, Kingswood Brick and Tile Company. The cost of the whole memorial – including fencing of the park, erection of the rotunda, the honour roll, concrete guttering, footpath and so on was estimated at 900 pounds                                                        .

Source: ‘Memorial Service’ Nepean Times, 14 August 1915, p6, c4-5

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The Penrith Honor Roll consists of 8 tablets which were originally affixed to the Rotunda when it was constructed in 1922. The tablets were presented by the Penrith Girls Comfort Club. When the rotunda was demolished in 1972, the tablets were affixed to brick walls in Memory Park. The first tablet contains the original plaque dedicated by His Excellency Sir Walter Davidson, KCMG on 8 July 1922. Six tablets list the soldiers who served from the Penrith district and the remaining tablet lists the WW1 nurses from the district who served overseas during World War 1. The names listed on the tablets consist of the person’s initials and surnames. Where possible, the full name of the person has been included to assist researchers.TABLET 1: Lists the soldiers killed during World War 1