In October, Cairns Family History launched the Cairns Cenotaph WW1 Memorial. This project is presented online to reach the widest possible audience – the Cairns community, family historians, military historians, schools and other interested individuals or groups.
The Cairns Cenotaph WW1 Online Memorial commemorates and records the lives of the soldiers and nurses listed on the Cenotaph panels who died serving their country. Each soldier and nurse has a separate webpage which includes details of their war service, biographical information, family history details as well as photographs, documents and news items.
A research team was formed consisting of Dell Deed, Kesley Court and Heather Cox. Their task included researching each soldier and nurse, writing the stories, sourcing the documents, photographs and news items
The concept for the project originated in 2015 with a suggestion by Aileen Park to research each person listed on the Cairns Cenotaph.
Cairns Cenotaph
The Cairns Cenotaph was originally erected at the intersection of Abbot and Shields Streets in 1925, as a tribute to those who gave their lives during WW1. The four faces of the plinth list those men and women from the community who died. The monument was relocated to the beautiful Cairns Esplanade, opposite the Cairns Returned Services League (RSL), in 1972.
There are 142 soldiers and nurses names listed on the Cenotaph panels. The Cairns Cenotaph WW1 Online Memorial contains biographies for 127 of these military personnel. The remaining 15 names cannot be positively identified:
J.E. Bowers, F.P. Jessop, J.J. Jones, A.E. Kenneth, G. Lawson, J. Lawson, J. Lynch, J. McLean, E. Paterson, W. Paterson, P. Quinn, A. Richards, G.B. Smith, G. Thomas, J.J.R. Woods
We are calling for people to contact us if they have any information about these soldiers.
In addition, if anyone has stories, photographs, letters, or other ephemera associated with the men and women listed in the Cairns Cenotaph WW1 Online Memorial we would appreciate it if they would contact Cairns Family History Society. We intend to add additional information to the biographies as it comes to hand.
Thank you to Dell Deed (researcher), Kesley Court (researcher and Cairns Cenotaph photographer), Heather Cox (researcher and Cairns Cenotaph website), Aileen Park for the idea for the project and initial research.
