The historic Maitland High School has restored a flag that forms both a keystone of its past and a connection to the men who gave their all in World War 1.
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In 1914, 345 old boys from Maitland High School signed up to fight in the bloody theatres of the great war.
Sixty of those men, almost one in five, never returned.
The names of those brave young soldiers were hand stitched into an Australian flag created by the young women at the-then Maitland Girls High School, in a show of support.
In August 1815 the Mercury wrote: “Rev T E Pierce (Mercury editor at the time) said the old boys of Maitland High School had put up a splendid record in all departments of life and it had a roll of honour in connection with World War I.
“The present pupils of the school should be filled with commendable pride to know that some of their school mates had taken their part in that memorable charge.”
Over the course of a century the ‘Flag of Honour’ faded, frayed and deteriorated.
That was until last year when the school enlisted the support of Duncan Harty and his Morpeth Conservation Studio to return it to its former glory.
That chapter of the flag’s story came to a close on Friday, Remembrance Day, when the school unveiled the restored flag and honour board bearing bearing the names of the men who died.
“It’s a significant part of our history,” deputy principal Neale Blackwell said.
“We’re one of the oldest high schools in the state and to see the flag back was really evocative.”
Friday’s ceremony included a delegation from Maitland RSL Sub-branch, school leaders and staff who spoke on the school’s connection with the fighting forces.
“For the school leaders, they were talking about people who were their age going off to fight and die in the first World War,” Mr Blackwell said.
“And the names on the honour board are still current Maitland families.”
But, Mr Blackwell said, the school now faces the daunting task of hanging the flag, which measures an immense 12-feet long and sits inside an 80kg perspex case.
“There’s just not room in the library to hang it,” Mr Blackwell said.
“Most walls aren’t that big.
“We’re thinking it will end up in the hall.”
Maitland’s soldiers formed the 34th Battallion in January 1916 and were dubbed “Maitland’s Own”.
They travelled to the UK and first saw action in the trenches of the Western Front in November of that year.
They took part in pivotal battles at Ypres and Passchendaele – where more than 50 per cent of the battalion was wiped out. It disbanded in 1919.