LH "To you, from falling hands, we throw the Torch: Be yours to hold it high, If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields."
RH "They shall no grow old, As we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them."
Inscription
To Our Fallen 1914-1919
Description & History
A soldiers' memorial window was dedicated at the morning service on the 13 November 1927 conducted by the Reverend F.A. Hagenauer and Reverend Andrew Dunn and attended by returned servicemen and families of the fallen. Senior-Chaplain Colonel D. McRae Stewart led the dedicatory prayer after the unveiling by General Sir James Whiteside McCay, KCMG, and during the service a wreath was placed by Lieutenant Shelton, President of the Returned Soldiers' Association. The sermon was based on the text of 2 Samuel 2:23, asking the question 'Was War Worthwhile?' and directly referencing the window entitled Peace after War.
The window, made by Brooks, Robinson & Co. to designs by William Wheildon and cartoons by George Dancey, included the figure of the Australian soldier, holding the torch in a field of Flanders poppies. The Australian flag lies in the field, below the feet of the angel in the right hand light.
The men whose names were inscribed in the window: Q Crawford; ND Garden; GS Garden; JG Hodson; R Ireland; R Martin; GW Mitchell; J Strahan; JH Wilson; WA Zeis; J Doman.
References & Acknowledgements
Extract from minutes of the Kirk Session meeting, 13 November 1927; 'Soldiers' Memorial Window', Castlemaine Mail, 2 March 1928.
With thanks to Margaret Levecke for access to the church and archival information on the windows
