A journey to the World War I battlefields of Europe and Gallipoli is not the only way to learn something of the heartbreak the conflict brought to Maitland families.
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A trip to Maitland High School tells it all. Of the 340 boys who went off to war in 1915, 62 died.
Two Maitland High School boys were killed on the same day at Lone Pine at Gallipoli – the famous Lieutenant Colonel Robert Scobie and Captain Harry Nash.
Captain Nash from West Maitland was 25 when he was killed.
Also killed during that war was Lieutenant SE Peirce, son of the Maitland Mercury editor, the Reverend Theodore Peirce and one of the most brilliant students at the University of Sydney.
His death sparked an uproar at the time, with letters to Sydney newspapers urging that young men with a “genius for scientific research” should not be assigned to front-line soldiering.
Another schoolboy killed in World War 1 was Harold Kerr.
Keen local historian and Maitland High principal Tim Weston has carefully collated the military records of boys from the school who served in World War I.
“The records at our school – and reports in the Maitland Mercury – sum up the heartbreak of World War I for so many Australian families, particularly for those in Maitland and surrounding areas,” Mr Weston said.
“The deaths of 62 of our students tore the heart out of our school, as it similarly affected their families.
“We have school magazines from 1915 that convey how feelings about the war changed.
“At the beginning, it was a war to ‘defend the empire’.
“It was very clear that Australians then regarded themselves as English and we were defending England.
“We also had teachers who went to war alongside their pupils and were killed, including a J.C. Burgess, a very popular language master here.
“And we have a last letter from Captain Nash to his mother, where he refers to an impending attack on the Turkish lines.
“But as the war continued, soldiers began to identify themselves more and more as Australians.”
On Anzac Day, every class at the school will do a project associated with the war and participation by the school’s pupils.
“I feel so privileged to be at a school with such a proud record, where the scholars had a brilliant history,” Mr Weston said.
“And the records we have here sum up the tragedy too.”
Hunter Region soldiers feature in the Faces of Anzacs memorial wall, which is live across almost two hundred Fairfax websites throughout Australia and New Zealand.
The site bears the names, suburbs and ages of Anzacs. Their stories, and memories, have been submitted by readers of our digital network.
The wall is searchable by name and location, has social media sharing, and can be viewed on mobile.
