Centenary of Kogarah War Memorial

The centenary of the erection of Kogarah War Memorial falls on 11 November 2023.  Following WWI, municipalities around Sydney were allotted a ‘war trophy’ in the form of a captured enemy field gun, howitzer or machine-gun.  A field gun came to Kogarah, and it was unveiled to a large crowd at Gray Street on 25 April 1921.  The following year it was the location of an Anzac Day service.

Kogarah was tardy in erecting its own war memorial.  It was only in July 1922 that a public meeting was called.  The Kogarah Soldiers’ Memorial Committee was formed, and decided that the memorial should take the form of a broken column, with room on the four sides of the base to include the names of the fallen, the cost to be about £500.  The Committee asked the NSW Public Monuments Advisory Board in 1923 about suitable designs.  Finally, a design supplied by the Local Government Department was approved by Kogarah Council.

Kogarah War Memorial was unveiled on 11 November 1923 by Major-General Charles Henry Brand, DSO.  Alderman Percy Tanner, Mayor of Kogarah presided.  George Cann, MLA, a former Digger, also spoke.  Major-General Brand attempted to leaven the solemn occasion with some humour.  In his experience, he declared, the Aussie Digger was never AWOL, never missed a train at Charing Cross, and never dodged saluting a superior officer.

To begin with, the memorial was located in the garden reserve in Gray Street.  It is a polished grey trachyte Doric column some twelve feet high on a square trachyte slab, with the inscription: “Those whom this monument commemorates sacrificed their lives in the Great War 1914-1919, that others might have freedom.  Let those who come after see that their sacrifices have not been in vain. Municipality of Kogarah.” 

The monument is notable for its omission of any names.  The Kogarah Memorial Committee had decided not to add names owing to lack of funds and also because of the difficulties in obtaining an accurate list.  In 1924 the Red Cross asked Kogarah Council about putting names of the fallen on the memorial.  Council replied that it had no objection, but referred the Red Cross to the committee which had erected the memorial.  No attempt was made at the time to ascertain how many Kogarah men died in action in WWI, but recent research suggests that it may have been as many as 120, with a further 75 from WWII.

During WWII, in about April 1942, the field gun was removed and scrapped for armaments at the request of the Kogarah Sub-branch of the RSS&AILA.  Several other local guns were scrapped at the same time, including those at Bexley Council Chambers and Rockdale School of Arts.  A military order had been issued that all field guns and howitzers of German manufacture should be delivered to Liverpool Camp by 14 March 1942. 

In 1966, Kogarah Sub-Branch RSS&AILA requested the removal of the War Memorial to its current location at English Street and Park Street.  This was done, and it was rededicated at the ANZAC Day service on 25 April 1968. A plaque honouring servicewomen who died in wars was erected at the memorial in 1972.  The plaque, designed by the Kogarah RSL sub-branch, was cast in bronze relief and shows the heads of Navy, Army and Air Force servicewomen, and above them the head of a nursing sister in uniform; service insignia are incorporated.