Weeping Mother Memorial

Many tears were shed on home soil as blood seeped in WWI trenches, Queensland’s outpouring of grief most poignantly captured in a marble statue of a seated weeping mother at Gatton. The foundation stone was laid in April 1922. The marble memorial, which includes a mausoleum-type structure, was unveiled by His Excellency the Governor Sir Matthew Nathan on 14 November 1922. The memorial was designed and produced by Ipswich mason Frank Williams at a cost of more than £500 with the money raised through public subscription. The weeping mother, slightly smaller than life-size, sits on a mound of rocks, her chin resting on her right hand, her left hand holding a scroll with the inscription ‘Their names liveth for evermore’. Gatton’s farming community lost 68 local men in WWI. The names of locals who died in subsequent conflicts, 23 in WWII and two in Vietnam, have been added. A light to illuminate the statue at night was added by the Gatton Returned Services League and Women’s Auxiliary, a WWI nurse flicking the switch on Armistice Day 1933.