Private Carter’s widow Dot Carter-Fisher and Trevor Hargreaves, OAM, who recited the oath, at the unveiling.
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Les_Garbutt
Two new plaques honouring servicemen were unveiled at Wilby’s ANZAC Day commemorations this year. St James and Lake Rowan also held services last Sunday.
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The plaques honour Trooper Sidney Edwards and Private Charles Dennis Carter, and are placed on a relocated plinth in the District Memorial Hall grounds at Wilby.
Part of the 1st Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts, Trooper Edwards was killed in action, age 19, in the Boer War in South Africa in 1901.
Private Carter survived World War II and returned to Wilby, after being a prisoner-of-war for three years, 11 months and 18 days.
Part of 2/7 Australian Infantry Battalion, he was wounded in action and captured off Crete in 1941 and not released until war’s end in 1945, where he was in an Austrian prison.
He died in 1986.
“He was a much-admired member of the community,” RSL Sub-Branch member, niece and former Wilby resident Lynne Dowsett said.
Private Carter’s niece shared some memories of her uncle.
The plaques honouring Trooper Sidney Edwards (Boer War) and Private Charles Dennis Carter (WWII).
“My favourite story of Uncle Den’s was when as a POW he was being marched for days through Italy, when coming down over a mountainside the deep sapphire blue waters of the Mediterranean were seen below,” she said.
“Prisoners ran to the beach stripping off their clothes to enjoy the first wash they’d had in weeks. Allies appeared in the sky, bombing Uncle Den and his mates. All the Diggers dove deep to avoid being hit. Uncle Den came up for air during the bombing.
“With a chuckle and a twinkle in his eye Uncle Den told us he’d never seen so many bare bottoms in his life.”
Ms Dowsett said her uncle also didn’t sugarcoat the “true stories of horror”, saying he wanted younger generations “to know how truly devastating war is”.
The recital of the oath was given by Trevor Hargreaves, OAM, and aided by Private Carter’s widow, Dot Fisher. Their sons Ross and Graeme, along with their families, were also present for the unveiling.
Trooper Edwards was remembered as a “truly adventurous” young man, paying his own way to South Africa to fight after initially failing a medical test.
The last of nine children and a footballer for Wilby Rovers, he died at Warm Baths on November 19.
His elder brother, William, named his only son Sidney and he lived in Wilby before retiring to Yarrawonga in the 1950s.
“It's indeed a privilege to acknowledge such courageous determination in a young local lad,” Ms Dowsett said.
The services also saw, being a pre-ANZAC Day event, the laying of two wreaths by the Yarrawonga Mulwala RSL Women’s Auxiliary.
Trevor Hargreaves, the Wilby Hall Committee, Clinton Dowsett, Craig Prescott, Frazer Smart and Pam Rosser were thanked for their role in placing the plinth and plaques.
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