Clifton
17–18 November 1915
Felton–Clifton Road, Clifton
The men were up early on the morning of 17 November 1915 for breakfast at Weatherley’s Café in Allora. The local ladies presented the recruits with some ‘necessities of life’ including tobacco, pipes, cigarettes, matches, shaving soap and razor strops. The march from Allora travelled north through Spring Creek where the men were given lunch by the Red Cross Society at ‘Ellerton’, the property of Mr Fred Easton. The children from the Spring Creek School sang the national anthem, ‘God Save the King’.
On the approach to Clifton they were joined by decorated motor cars and vehicles of all description. They set up camp in the showgrounds where they were able to take a shower but another cooling option was a short drive to Kings Creek for a swim. In the evening, a recruitment rally was held in the School of Arts Hall. The men were entertained by the local children’s choir and six recruits were sworn in.
At that time, Clifton had a cottage hospital which had been established by local nurse, Sister Elizabeth Kenny. She had enlisted in May 1915, and was nursing on troopships returning wounded soldiers to Australia. Sister Kenny was to later achieve fame through her therapeutic methods of dealing with polio sufferers.
Recruits
- Duncan, Walter John #2462
- Hawkins, John #4451
- Hawkins, Thomas Edward #4452
- Morris, Harry Agnew #4499 (married to the sister of the Hawkins brothers)
Nominated but not enlisted—Hazlitt, James; Rissman, C J
