Can you help us?
We have identified the following stories and names of service personnel being farewelled or welcomed home at Wollongong railway station – are there any more ? Or perhaps you have some photographs or memorabilia of service personnel or the stations from the WW1 years ?
If so, then if you’d like to help us – please email details to bdhcbulli@gmail.com or phone 02 – 42 671488.
Note – Not all of the people below lived in Wollongong – some may have lived in Keiraville or Figtree or Balgownie or Port Kembla etc, but their stories of farewell and welcome home at Wollongong Station are listed below
- Feb 23 1915 Illawarra Mercury – Return from New Guinea Australian Navy & Military Expeditionary Force (Tropical Unit) – welcomed at the station (Sydney photos – Mick Roberts on the ANMEF on HMAS Berrima to New Guinea – ANMEF Facebook Group)
- Jack Bovard – electrician : (S/N 1021 (1914) & later enlisted again 1220 (1915) ) – (1915 Record) (Port Kembla)
- Roy Dean – tailor : (S/N 970 (1914) & later enlisted again 4077 (1915) -) (Record )
- Arnold Hosking(s) engineer & Water Rats Club : (S/N 305 (1914) & later enlisted again 1915 & promoted to Major & awarded Military Cross -later died in Battle of Menin Road Ypres 1917 & re-interred Tyne Cot Passchandaele Belgium CWGC – TWGPP – AWM Photo A03629 – brass plaque at St Michael’s Wollongong & photo at Wollongong RSL Club Library (donation – more) – Find a Grave entry – (Record) – had been selected to attend Coronation in England 1911
- George Walklate – electrical mechanical crane driver & Water Rats Club : (S/N 697 (1914), later enlisted again (S/N 295) 1915 & promoted to Captain & awarded Military Cross – (more) (1916) & N72787 (1940) – promoted to Major WWII (1941) (Record)
- 4 others unnamed probably Jack Young (born West Hartlepool UK father John Thomas Young), Bert Tregear, Jack Mitchell, Norm Whitfield
- but other Illawarra enlistments – Walter David Smith (Port Kembla), Frank Whitehead (Port Kembla), Thomas Tennant (Port Kembla), William Henry Guard (Thirroul), John George May (Helensburgh), Charles Taylor (Dapto), Philip Plumb(Corrimal) , William Edwin Wilson (Helensburgh), Hugh Reynolds (Corrimal) or Harold Ray (Rea) (Shellharbour), William Charles Brown (Corrimal), Charles Andrew Ross (Helensburgh), Henry Reginald Booth (Thirroul)
- note – David Howarth (Discovering ANZACs) (Port Kembla) did not return in March 1915, but remained in New Guinea until November 1915.
- July 20 1915 Illawarra Mercury – first of wounded men (unnamed) from the Dardenelles arrived by special train from Melbourne – welcomed by thousands
- August 31 1915 Illawarra Mercury – men on last leave return to camp (unnamed) – seen off by friends at the station for 5.20pm train to Sydney
- September 17 1915 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Gunners A H Watson & G Graham welcomed home at the station
- October 5 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Roy Wilton & Private Sloan welcomed home from Dardanelles at Wollongong Railway Station and transported in a procession to a welcome home reception at Wollongong Town Hall
- October 15 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Johnny Barrett and other unnamed soldiers heading to Egypt farewelled at the station
- October 2 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Jack W Coates and other unnamed soldiers farewelled from the station
- November 26 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Annett, wounded in the Dardanelles welcomed home at the station and transported in a procession to a welcome home reception at Wollongong Town Hall – ( January 4 1916 – Illawarra Mercury – gains employment in the Public Works Dept )
- November 30 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Lieutenant Colonel R H Owen CMC welcomed home from the Dardanelles at the station – transported in a procession to welcome home reception at Wollongong Town Hall – had been awarded the Order of St Michael and St George
- November 30 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Tom Austin finally arrives at Wollongong Station to a small welcome having missed the two previous one’s arranged for him
- November 30 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – Corporal E Powell welcomed home at the station from the Dardanelles
- December 10 1915 – Illawarra Mercury – farewell procession from the station for Gunner R P Parsons and Privates J Mulligan, H Baker, J Mitchell, J O’Neill & G Austin
- March 31 1916 – Illawarra Mercury – welcome home planned for Corporal K Dowsett of Keiraville – to meet him at Wollongong Station and convey him to his home
- May 19 1916 – Illawarra Mercury – welcome home to Private L Mahady at the station
- November 7 1916 – Illawarra Mercury – Lone Pine Band visited Wollongong and marched from the station to the Town Hall accompanied by local returned soldiers
- May 18 1917 – Illawarra Mercury – Captain Charles George Walklate welcomed home at the station
- July 13 1917 – Illawarra Mercury – Sergeant J F Souter and Private A Lewis welcomed home at the station
- July 20 1917 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Sergeant Souter and Private Lewis had been welcomed home at the station
- November 23 1917 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Bob Doyle welcomed home at the station after serving in France
- December 1 1917 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Private Houghton welcomed home at the station
- December 28 1917 – Illawarra Mercury – Private W Houghton welcomed at the station
- March 8 1918 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Jack Sloan welcomed home at the station after serving Gallipoli and France
- March 15 1918 – Illawarra Mercury – Lance Corporal N Emery, Privates J Yates & Kemp welcomed home at the station
- June 21 1918 – Illawarra Mercury – Gunner E Anderson welcomed home at the station
- June 21 1918 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Gunner E Anderson welcomed home at the station
- August 9 1918 – Illawarra Mercury – Privates Percy Mahady, J Barrett and Cyril Woods welcomed home at the station
- October 18 1918 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Mantion welcomed home at railway station and transported in a procession to Wollongong Town Hall for a reception
- November 29 1918 – Illawarra Mercury – Lance Corporal Lomas Fishlock welcomed home at the station and then conveyed to the Wollongong Town Hall
- November 29 1918 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Lance Corporal Lomas Fishlock welcomed home at the station
- January 3 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Corporal G W Payne and Sergeant Gardener welcomed home at the station
- January 3 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Private Gilmore welcomed at the station and conveyed to the Wollongong Town Hall – also Sergeant C E Scott, an original ANZAC, welcomed home at the station
- January 3 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Sergeant C E Scott, Corporal Geo Payne and Sergeant Gardner welcomed at the station
- January 17 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Signaller J C Johns and Private Teerman welcomed home at the station and escorted to the Town Hall
- January 31 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Corporal Grace welcomed home at the station and escorted to the Town Hall
- February 28 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Privates Norman Whitfield and Hallinan welcomed home at the station
- February 28 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Arthur Madgwick arrived home without notice so no welcome – Private Arthur Peterson welcomed home at the station, Corporal Kelly Trooper O’Brien and Gunner Mayne welcomed home with a procession
- March 14 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Privates L McAndrew & F R L Stevenson welcomed home at the station
- March 28 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Sister Alice Allen nee B Thompson, of Balgownie, welcomed home at the station from the Salonica front – her husband Dr Thompson was then yet to return from being on duty at the front
- April 4 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Private Jenkins & Trooper W Gorrell welcomed home at the station
- April 25 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Private S Slater, Trooper E Heininger and H Marks welcomed home at the station
- April 25 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Trooper E Heininger, Private Schlater and Trooper H Marks welcomed home at the station
- May 16 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Private L S Whitbread Croix de Guerre was welcomed at the station and then transported to Balgownie
- May 23 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Sergeant F Hawken & ?Poland MM (Military Medal) expected home with a welcome awaiting them but they didn’t arrive – in Quarantine ?
- July 11 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Sergeant W Hayman, Corporal T Potter and Private J McMahon welcomed home at the station
- August 1 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Gunner P Chappell, Sergeant Hewitson, Sergeant George Vidal and English bride, and Private Jack Brown welcomed home at the station
- August 1 1919 – Illawarra Mercury – Sister Pearl Musgrave (Nursing) welcomed home at the station after serving at Abbasia Hospital near Cairo Egypt – detail – (Sister Pearl Musgrave was one of three nurses from the suburb of Wollongong who enlisted in WW1 – others were Sister Emily Rebecca Mary Parsons (Illawarra Remembers) and Sister Muriel Leontine Wakeford (Illawarra Remembers) – detail
- August 8 1919 – South Coast Times & Wollongong Argus – Sergeant C Easterbrook welcomed home at the station – plus a belated welcome to soldiers who had not been welcomed due to Influenza epidemic concerns ie Sergeant Batey, Privates J Cowie, G Ward and D Harris
Contact us : bdhcbulli@gmail.com
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