St Marys War Memorial - Victoria Park

When World War I started in 1914, over 100 men from St. Marys district answered the call for service. Twenty-two of them did not return when the war officially ended four years later in November, 1918. To honour the memory of these men, the inhabitants of the St. Marys district decided to build a memorial. This memorial still stands in Victoria Park facing the Great Western Highway.

On 18 October 1920, the Memorial Committee decided to conduct a house to house canvas of the municipality designed to attract contributors to the Memorial Fund. These contributions would be collected monthly for the period of a year. The mayor of St Marys, Alderman T Brooker, presided over a meeting held on 6 December 1920 to decide on the form the soldiers memorial should take. Several proposals were placed before the meeting, the most popular choice being the erection in Victoria Park of a rotunda similar to one at Mount York.

By January 1922, plans were nderway for the laying of two memorial stones. In March 1922 a total of £470 had been raised and the list of proposed names to be inscribed on the memorial was circulated. A fundraising carnival was planned for the 11-13 May with the aim of raising £300 towards the memorial.

A meeting of the Soldiers Memorial Committee set the date for the unveiling ceremony as October 28, 1922. A tender submitted by Messrs Loveridge and Hudson for the tablets bearing the names of the local soldiers was accepted at £61. By mid-September, the funds required for the memorial had been raised, but additional costs associated with the mounting of the war trophies and a flagstaff, had not yet been raised. A meeting on October 9, 1922 was held to finalise the arrangements for the unveiling of the memorial.

The St. Marys Memorial Pavilion was officially opened on November 18, 1922, by Major-General Sir Charles Rosenthal, a distinguished soldier of the AIF. Sir Charles also unveiled the memorial tablets attached to three sides of the structure. An estimated crowd of 700 people attended this opening ceremony.

Two trophy guns (since removed) were also unveiled to the left and right of the memorial. Mr R.B. Walker, MLA, in unveiling the trench mortar to the west of the memorial, pointed out that it was captured at Mont St. Quentin by the 20th Battalion, 2nd Australian Division led by Sir Charles Rosenthal. The second trench mortar, placed to the east of the memorial, was unveiled by Mrs. S. Young, secretary of the local branch of the Red Cross Society.

The activities and speeches of the day were duly recorded in the “Nepean Times” newspaper, the paper devoting a whole page to the occasion. The architect of the memorial was Mr A.S. Carfae, of Sydney, the builder being Mr E. Exley, of St Marys. The local newspaper described the concrete memorial pavilion as being: “Octagonal in shape, but with four alternate faces of lesser width than the other four. Three of the later, viz., those facing east, west and north bear the memorial tablets. The platform is reached through an entrance into the basement of the southern side, and thence by a stairway. The superstructure consists of eight solid pillars supporting the roof. The pavilion is 30 feet high and is 18 feet in width. The width of the enclosure each way is 40 feet. The entrance to the enclosure is by a gate at the north-eastern corner.” The report concluded by giving some interesting statistics: “About 150 tons of material was used in the construction of the memorial and there is 1 3/4 miles of reinforcing wire in it.”

Source: ‘St. Marys Soldiers’ Memorial’ Nepean Times, 4 November, 1922.

Victoria Park War Memorial Pavillion

This memorial was erected by Public Subscription

1922

A. S. Carfrae     Eli Exley
Architect           Builder

Northern Side

The northern side of the pavilion is inscribed:

1914-1918

THEY DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR

Eastern Side

Western Side

ROLL OF HONOUR