Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

ANZAC Day was marked in Denmark last week with a recollection of service and sacrifice in all wars at the War Memorial on Hollings Road.

Denmark Historical Society president Bev McGuinness in her address to the crowd gathered said this year marked 110 years since the beginning of World War I.

At that time Denmark’s population was only 200, though 83 men and two women enlisted and of those 37 men died. Both the women, Nellie Saw and Florence McKenzie, who were nurses, died soon after the war.

Their deaths were from diseases contracted in the war.

They are listed in the Denmark War Memorial which was erected and opened in 1932. A soldier listed is Daniel Clark who was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 after being awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty at Pozieres.

Daniel Clark was the brother of John Clark after whom the school band, John Clark Memorial Band, which played at the service last week, is named.

Great War local losses recalled

Another WWI soldier was Frank Read after whom the Frank Read Reserve on South Coast Highway near McLeod Road is named.

The Denmark Historical Society has a photograph of Frank Read standing at the door of his cottage holding a teapot.

When Mrs McGuinness and husband Ross visited Frank Read’s grave at Heilly Station Cemetery in France in July 2016 her first thought was that she should have brought a teapot.

“I went to the nearest village and bought a cup and stuck the Shire logo onto it and placed it next to his grave,” she said.

At the beginning of World War II Denmark’s population was about 400 with 21 people dying in the war.

Among them was RAAF Flight Sergeant Edward Laing whose plane was shot down over Holland in 1943.

At the time, an 8-year-old boy, Gerrit Zijlstra, heard the bombers overhead and took a photograph. About 20 years later Gerrit came to Denmark and found Ted‘s brother Geoff Laing and gave him the photograph and a piece of the plane.

“Geoff was very moved by this,” Mrs McGuinness said.

These are now framed with the photo, Ted‘s medals and a photo of Gerrit, all a treasured family heirloom.

William Ravenhill served for Britain during WW1 and came to Australia as part of the Group Settlement Scheme to Tingledale.

He was awarded the Military Medal for his service on the Somme in WW1.

He was posted to Egypt in WWII where he died in a motor accident and is buried at Tel El Kabir cemetery in Egypt.

Harry Tysoe died in Japan in a prisoner of war camp from beri beri.

He was captured at the fall of Singapore and is buried in the Yokahama War Cemetery.

His brother Fred, who served in the Navy during WWII, was one of three survivors when his ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1953 the ‘wings’ were added to the Denmark War Memorial with funds raised by the community to list WWII servicemen and women who had lost their lives. Mrs McGuinness said that while acknowledging those who had fought and died there should be acknowledgement of people at home during the war years.

“The police, the firemen, the Red Cross women, the farmers who kept everything going,” she said.

“Many farmers got an exemption from going to war but many volunteered.

“One group who does not get a mention is the wives and family members particularly of farmers who enlisted.”

See all the pictures in the issue.
This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 2 May 2024.