Nobby might only have around 600 residents but it has gained a reputation for properly commemorating its heroes.

Rudd’s pub is of course famous for its devotion to the creator of the ‘Dad and Dave’ collection of pioneer yarns, Steele Rudd.

The town also has a museum devoted to Sister Elizabeth Kenny, famous for her pioneer work treating polio.

Another lesser known memorial, but in the eyes of Nobby residents of 1915, of equal importance, is the memorial in Nobby Cemetery to Private Victor Denton.

Victor Denton was the town’s blacksmith and after Britain’s declaration of war against Germany on 4th August 1914, young 20 years old Victor wasted no time in joining the action by enlisting thirty days later.

As a country boy he no doubt was a skilled horseman and so it is no surprise to see he joined the 2nd Light Horse Regiment.

Private Denton soon found himself on the pebbly beach of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli on 12th May 1915 and, like many others, believed the action against the Turks would be brief and they would soon be drinking beers in the hotels of Istanbul.

His 2nd Light Horse regiment went to Gallipoli without their horses and fought mainly around Anzac Cove and the ferocious defence of Quinn’s Post.

On the 31st May while fighting in Monash Valley, Victor Denton was shot in the chest and died the same day; he lasted 27 days on the bloody ridges of Gallipoli.

The people of Nobby no doubt were in shock, their young blacksmith dead before his twenty-first birthday.

Private Victor Denton was buried on the slopes of the beautiful Beach Cemetery overlooking Anzac Cove where he is in good company with another soldier in the A.I.F.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick; the man with the donkey.

The grave of Private Victor Denton is marked as I J 5 with 22 years old John Simpson Kirkpatrick I F 1.

But the town of Nobby does not give up its heroes lightly and so residents subscribed to a fund to build a memorial to their young blacksmith hero.

Enlisting the services of Bruce Brothers Monumental Masons of Toowoomba, the memorial of concrete and stone is located in the Denton family section of the local cemetery alongside the grave of Victor Denton’s parents.

The Nobby School memorial gates also commemorate those who served and fell during the First and Second World Wars with marble plaques bearing the names to each side of the gate, including Victor Denton’s.

This article appeared in On Our Selection News, 16 March 2023.