Summertown Women’s Memorial

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Text: Karen Agutter

Image: MLDHS Photographic Collection 284-8

Situated at the entrance to the Summertown cemetery (between Summertown and Uraidla) these gates were erected by the Summertown Women’s Comfort Fund and the relatives of those from the district who died in the service of their country during World War One. The memorial arch was opened by Colonel Price Weir and the mothers of the fallen soldiers on Saturday 23 October 1920.

The arch reads ‘In Memory of Our Heroic Dead 1914-1919’. On the pillars of the gate are a series of marble plaques which list the names of the deceased. Uraidla – AF Collins, LTR Collins, SL Dyer, EL Green, WJ Cricc, D Scott, FH Souter, JF Souter, LL Udy, DW Wilcox. Carey’s Gully – AL Christian, PW Christian, CC Hall, RW Long, WJ Mac-Farlane, EM Rutt, WC Shueard, A Mills. Summertown – AJ Charles, AE Church, FTR Church, AE Collins, WH Driver, RN Fuller, PJ Core, SR Hales, FB Kent, CE Le Lant, HH Liverton, WE Trenorden, LC Trenorden (M.M.) AE Vince. Piccadilly – CR Nicholas, FA Schantz, SL Schocroft, JA Steer, PC Winter.

There is also a plaque which reads ‘We the members of the Summertown Women’s Comfort Club, bereaved parents, and sympathetic friends, erect these gates as a memorial to those who sacrificed their lives in the great war for us, we are glad to do homage to those who have paid the greatest price for our liberty.’

The Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) was officially formed in 1916 as a national body. The ACF was a national body which amalgamated the many local voluntary women’s groups, like the Summertown Women’s Comfort Fund, who knitted socks and worked to raise funds to send “luxury” items such as cakes, puddings, tobacco, newspapers, condensed milk etc. to supplement the Australian soldiers’ army rations.

Do you know anything more about the erection of this memorial? Of the soldiers (or others from the district) who served in WWI or other conflicts? Do you know anything more about the Summertown (or other) Women’s Comfort Funds? Contact us at mldhsgateways@mtloftyhistoricalsociety.org.au or drop into the History Centre at the Coventry Library, 63 Mount Barker Road, Stirling.