'Lost' WW1 soldiers formally recognised with headstones after community effort

Australia Broadcast Center

24-04-2025

A remarkable grassroots effort between a family historian and a volunteer organisation has resulted in 107 soldiers in unmarked graves receiving headstones and official commemoration.
Discovering the identities of the soldiers in the central west NSW cemetery began with the name of just one man.
In 2018, Orange-based historian Sharon Jameson was compiling a list of local servicemen for World War I centenary commemorations when she came across a name she had not seen before in a newspaper article from 1921.
"I found a William Wrangham in the paper [but] there was no record anywhere of him in Orange," Ms Jameson said.
William Wrangham's death notice in The Orange Leader, May 1921.
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Supplied: Sharon Jameson
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Ms Jameson dug deeper and managed to establish that William Wrangham was born in England and may have been looking for gold in the Orange district when he had fallen ill and died in hospital of complications from being gassed.
Wartime rations meant he was buried simply in an unmarked grave.
Struck by the tragedy of Mr Wrangham's lonely end, Ms Jameson wrote to
"I said, 'How do I go about getting [a war grave]?' and they said, 'Just leave it with us'," Ms Jameson said.
Almost 100 years after his death, Private William Wrangham received a war grave.
It inspired Ms Jameson to continue digging.
"Somebody at [Orange] family history said, 'Oh, there'll be more than one soldier out there' and I thought, 'Well, I'll bloody well find them',"
she said.
Survived the war but not the peace
With the help of a friend, Ms Jameson set about combing through council burial records and comparing them to service records to establish how many soldiers lay in unmarked graves in Orange's general cemetery.
"That's when we found 107 [soldiers] who didn't have a grave," Ms Jameson said.
John Fargie was buried in an unmarked grave in Orange in 1944.
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Supplied: Sharon Jameson
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Ms Jameson said the men's war records gave them vital clues to the men's post-war lives, including what injury or illness they might have had.
The women discovered 48 of the 107 men had died in the Bloomfield mental health facility at Orange.
They included English-born William Crumpler, who was sent to Bloomfield after suffering a nervous breakdown while working in Parkes.
He later died alone in a strange town, unaware that his sister was searching for him.
"He really touched my soul, that man," Ms Jameson said.
"
They dug a hole, popped him in with the minister saying 'Bless you, bless you' and filled in the hole.
"
A more 'enlightened' approach
By writing to the Office of Australian War Graves and telling their individual stories, Ms Jameson was able to secure an official Commonwealth war grave for 40 of the 107 men.
A further 17 men who couldn't be physically located in the cemetery had their names commemorated on a memorial wall, funded by a combination of donations and government grants.
Condoblin brothers Fabian and Francis Leonard. Fabian was commemorated on the memorial wall.
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Supplied: Sharon Jameson
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The remaining 50 men were deemed ineligible for a Commonwealth war grave by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) on the basis that they did not meet the criteria for official commemoration.
In a statement, the DVA said post-service deaths that were not due to the veterans' war service were not eligible for commemoration via a war grave.
But Forgotten Digger founder John Thomas has been fighting to change that, saying the definition is too limited.
"Every one of these men's deaths was war-related in one way or another,"
Mr Thompson said.
"No-one who went to that war came back the same as they went away."
His organisation aims to identify every unmarked WWI digger grave.
It was instrumental in helping Ms Jameson commemorate Orange's 107 soldier burials through research and fundraising support.
"I'd like to think that a more enlightened approach would be that they don't qualify for a formal Commonwealth War Grave, but we can do something for them," Mr Thompson said.
"At the moment it's, 'Sorry, they don't qualify, that's the end of it'."
John Thomas says the government should widen its definition of who qualifies for an official war grave.
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ABC Central West: Murray McCloskey
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In a statement, a spokesperson for the DVA said it accepted liability for deaths due to service-related injuries or diseases during or after service, including mental health conditions or suicide, where they were related to the veteran's service.
"If a First World War veteran's grave is found to be ineligible for official commemoration, interested parties can apply for funding of up to $620 through the Marking (First World War) Private Graves Grants Program," a spokesperson said.
But Mr Thomas said the grant amounts did not cover the full cost of the grave and that the government needed to do more.
"$620 for a man's life? It's not a lot to ask," he said.