A Tasmanian tragedy: Honour roll of our World War I casualties

STATISTICS can be pretty cold and clinical. Behind each name on the honour roll there is a tragedy.

Rememberance Day at the Hobart Cenotaph.

STATISTICS can be pretty cold and clinical. Behind each name on the honour roll there is a tragedy.

It is incredible to consider the massive sacrifice that Tasmania made towards the Great War – indeed it could be said the only thing “Great” about the war was the number of casualties.

From its small population that had just passed 200,000 for the first time, Tasmania sent more than 15,000 of its men, women and boys to the war.

Hundreds of Tasmanians enlisted elsewhere, expanding that number.

Nearly 2900 died as a result of their service.

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Twice that number would have returned wounded to some degree, many having been gassed.

All would have returned psychologically affected to some degree.

Every Tasmanian family was touched directly by the tragedy.

Those who returned home with devastating wounds which lasted a lifetime had to be cared by their ageing parents.

A number of these poor souls ended up at what was then called the “asylum” at New Norfolk with various serious ailments, many suffering what was referred to as “Shell Shock”.

One can only imagine the misery, the sadness, the heart-break.

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Taking into account that the bulk of the casualties did not occur until April 1915, I estimate that from then until the armistice in November 1918, an average of one or two Tasmanian men were killed every day.

The recently concluded war in Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 41 Australian soldiers and another Australian lost his life serving with the British Army.

That is 42 too many, but when you consider the rate in comparison to Tasmania’s effort during World War I, it puts the whole episode in perspective.

There were more than twice as many Tasmanian deaths during World War I than during World War II.

In World War I there were approximately 60,000 Australian deaths.

Taking into account our approximate Tasmanian total of 2900, our percentage is slightly higher than our population ratio to the rest of the nation at the time, which was just under three per cent.

Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to Tasmanians.

Two Tasmanians are listed as dying on Armistice Day 1918: Private Cyril Charles Fleming and Private Robert Martin Brook.

One can ponder on the effect socially which the loss of young men, either dead or wounded, had on Tasmania.

The cream of our youth for a generation was lost.

It was generally the healthy, the robust, the masculine and the best, who were sent away to fight.

Then just 21 years later, our young men were off again to fight, including some of the not-so-young who falsified their ages in order to serve the nation once again.

Originally published as A Tasmanian tragedy: Honour roll of our World War I casualties