Right:  Alick MacLean

Carnamah had a small one-teacher school which was under the management of 25 year old Scottish immigrant Alick MacLean. An Education Department inspector described him as "Inexperienced but eager to improve. A Good Teacher."

He was granted leave in 1914 to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F.). He was 6 feet ¾ inches tall, weighed 74 kilograms and had blue-grey eyes, light brown hair and a fair complexion.

Alick landed with the 12th Battalion on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey on 25 April 1915. One of his comrades thought he was shot, possibly in the arm, and headed for the beach. Whatever did happen, he died and was never seen again.

Christopher Hoskyns-Abrahall was a Major in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. He retired after 23 years and migrated to Western Australia, where he also purchased a Ready-Made Farm at Winchester.

Left:  Plaque at Kings Park in Perth

Aeneas Murray grew up in Gingin and before enlisting worked as a railway fettler in Carnamah for the Midland Railway Company.

He enlisted in the A.I.F. in 1915 and served as a Private in the 11th Infantry Battalion in France. He was hospitalised after being shot in the left buttock and another three times due to illness and trench fever. He died on 31 July 1918 after suffering a shell wound to his head and a fractured skull.

Olive Parkin of Carnamah, who was a close friend or perhaps something more, wrote to the A.I.F. requesting a photograph of his grave.

His headstone at the Borre British Cemetery in northern France reads: "One who helped to write Australia's history in blood."

Right:  Ned Wells

Ned returned to Three Springs after the war and later took up farming in Carnamah. At times he was unable to work for entire days due to problems with his eyes, which had been aggravated by his war service. He was financially ruined by the Great Depression and left with no option but to abandon his farm. He worked locally as a farm manager for a few years and then with his wife Peg ran the Wells & Wells Pyramid Tea & Dining Rooms. The remaining portion of their tearooms is now our museum.

Ned was a member and avid supporter of the Returned & Services League (R.S.L.) and in 1994 received a 50-year Service Award. He remained in Carnamah and Three Springs for the remainder of his life and died at the age of 103 in 1996.

Below:  Ned's A.I.F. discharge certificate from 1919
(click + drag to zoom / navigate image)

The Repatriation Department wrote to Roger's former employer requesting he be reinstated or offered another job if he was less capable: “It is unnecessary, I feel sure, to stress the obligation which rests upon all employers to co-operate with the Government in re-establishing in civil life, on the best terms possible, the men who have risked so much at the call of their country.”

However, five years had passed and much had changed. His former employer had died during the war and his employer’s widow had discontinued farming.