| | The following brief military history of the Maitland district from 1860
is only designed as a brief outline only and not as an in-depth historical
article.
A BRIEF OUTLINE OF LOCAL MILITARY HISTORY
Maitland's military officially began on 20th October 1860 when volunteers
from Maitland, East Maitland and surrounding districts enlisted in the Volunteer
Rifles in the East Maitland Company and the West Maitland Company of the "The Northumberland Volunteer Rifle Corps".
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The original muster roll from 1860 is in Maitland City
Library, according to local military historian Mr Ron Montague, it may be
the only surviving muster roll from 1860 in existence. |
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Ensign Alex Wilkinson (on the right) and Private Sloan (on
the Left) joined the Volunteer
Rifles at Maitland on the 20th October 1860, they are said to be the
fathers of the military volunteer movement in the Maitland and surrounding
districts.
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At present we do not know if any of the original volunteers or any other Maitland men volunteered
for service in the Maori Wars of 1861 - 1869, but we do know that Captain John
Shaw Phelps who
was born in Sydney and was brought up in the Maitland district and but later
attended boarding school in Sydney, joined the
British army as a Assistant Surgeon with the 57th Regiment, saw service in
Crimea war, went to New Zealand
with 2 company's of the 57th Regiment, he was killed in action in
the battle of Rangiriri on the 20th November 1863, at the time of his
death his parents were still
living within the Maitland district on the Paterson River.
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Private George Wyndham junior, of Branxton was one of
the first to join in October 1860, he was a crack shot and took part in
the first inter-colonial shoot in Melbourne, on the way home he was
shipwrecked on the south coast and lost the medal which he had won. George
Wyndham is seated on the left with a cap in his hand. |
During the Sudan War 6 men associated with the Maitland district, 8 from
the Singleton, 1 from Jerry's Plains and 1 from Williamtown (NSW) saw service
in the Sudan as part of the NSW Colonial Force in 1855.
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Maitland volunteer No 55 Private Charles Henry
Mitchell then aged 27 served in the infantry in B Coy. He later
served in the Boer War as No 141 with the 1 NSW Mounted Rifles when aged
about 42. His son who had the same name enlisted as No 5158 in
the 2nd Battalion AIF in WW1. (click on the photo for the Sudan
nominal roll)
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In 1899 Maitland members of the NSW Lancers travelled to England for military
training and tournaments, as they were about to return to Australia the
Anglo-Boer War broke out, volunteers from the NSW Lancers were the first
Australian unit to become involved in the war when they landed in South Africa
to a huge welcome on the 2nd November 1899, one of those men was Trooper Fred Avard of
Maitland.
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Trooper Fred Avard died of wounds on 10th Oct
1900 near Carolina South Africa and is now buried
in the ERMELO War Cemetery in Eastern Transvaal, South Africa. There are
also memorials to him at St Peters Church at East
Maitland and in the foyer of the old Maitland Town Hall. This
photo curtesy of his descendant and author Les H Perrett shows Fred
on his horse "PADDY" |
Some 272 volunteers from Maitland and the surrounding Hunter Valley districts
have so far been recorded as serving in the Anglo-Boer War, very few of these
volunteers have ever been recorded on memorials in the Maitland or surrounding
districts.
(With this in mind Maitland RSL sub-Branch in 2002
decided to record our volunteers names on a new memorial wall to honour and
remember their valuable service to Maitland and Australia.)
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This British Peace Medal was issued on a limited scale when
it was believed that the war was over in the middle of 1900 and there
would only be minor mopping up actions left to be carried out. |
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Captain Robert Scobie of Maitland (standing) with
Major Granville John Burnage of Dungog, both served in B Squadron, 3 NSW
Mounted Rifles during the Anglo-Boer war. Both also served in WW1, Robert Scobie first as Major and later
as Lt Col and CO of 2nd Battalion AIF, he was KIA at Gallipoli on 7th
August 1915. Granville Burnage served as Lt Col and CO of 13th Battalion AIF.
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Over 20,000 people filled Maitland Park and celebrated the lifting of
the siege at Mafeking which had been defended by Lord Baden-Powel, later a
collection was taken up and after
consideration it was decided to spend the money on an avenue of about 200 trees
in Maitland Park which was later named the Transvaal Avenue, the avenue became
the first
memorial avenue in Australia, memorial trees were selected as a link between the
past, the present and the future.
The citizens of Maitland took up collections to farewell and welcome
home volunteers from the war at various functions. At the end of
the war and after the last of the volunteers had been welcomed home it was found
that there was some surplus money in the fund which was placed in a trust fund where it
remained because of a serious rift between the organising trustees and the
council and it was not until 1929 that a small memorial was finally erected
under the guidance of the Mayor Alderman R L Pender with the remaining funds.
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Transvaal Fountain 1929
A list of
volunteers who served from Maitland and surrounding districts is located
under Nominal Rolls or by clicking the photo.
The plaque reads "TRANSVAAL FOUNTAIN To The Citizens of Maitland
For Duty Done 1899 - 1901 ALD. R L Pender, Mayor,
ALDmn. W
McLauchlin, Lt Col. E Nash VD"
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Members of NSW Lancers from the Hunter Valley who were
selected to go to the opening of the first Federal Parliament in Melbourne
in May 1901. Trooper George Mead of Maitland is standing at
the end of the back row on the right. |
More to come, this page is still under construction
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