News - Berwick - 21st April 2016

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Connecting people & communities BERWICK Thursday, 21 April, 2016

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Walker roped in

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.com.au Thursday, 21

April, 2016 Page

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Raes pay respects By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS THE cenotaph in Narre Warren North’s farming district has special significance for Private George Rae’s children. Still sprightly 80-somethings, Jack, Bert and Thelma Rae pay their respects to their father at the five-metre marble monument built by farmers soon after World War I. It stands within a picket-fence and rosemary hedge enclosure on Memorial Drive, looking out to their great-grandmother Annie Troup’s homestead settled in the 19th century. It memorialises the 18 servicemen who enlisted for World War I from Narre Warren North, including George Rae and brother Walter. All but three returned home. Jack Rae, who has lived in the district his whole life, knows all the family names etched in the marble. “Wars can bring out the best in people,� he says. “Communities in years gone by get together and work together.� At the time, the war didn’t seem like a nationbuilding event, he says. Rather it was a war devouring many of the country’s young men from farms and cities. His father George continued working on the family’s 100-plus acre dairy farm in the early years of World War I. He enlisted as a 23-year-old in 1916, serving as a farrier at the France battlefields. Like many other veterans, he didn’t speak much about his service. But there was one thing his father didn’t forget about the war, Jack says. His father remembered horses that were “knocked around� being transported by train for slaughter. They would be led by an invalid soldier towards their journey to French people’s plates. To get an idea of the steel discipline of the times, George Rae was docked two days’ pay in England in 1916 for not shaving for a parade at 0900. During World War II, Jack was just a teenager enlisted in a citizens military force that met weekly in Dandenong. He, along with another 80 adolescents, learnt how to bear arms. He remembers when war was declared. It was a Sunday because his family’s relatives and friends were gathered at their farm, huddled around the radio. Continued on page 3

Bert Rae, Thelma Witham and Jack Rae with a photo of their father George Rae, at the cenotaph. 153094

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