Teralba's Lost Boys of WWI

In 2014 photographs of World War 1 Soldiers were found in the rafters of a classroom at Teralba Public School during renovations. The photographs were in a box and the amount of dust and damage indicated that they had been there for many years - possibly since the time period immediately after the war. A few have names on them and identify the soldiers they belong to while the majority remain unknown.

We would be grateful for any assistance in identifying these soldiers. Please use the feedback link on the right side of this page to help us give them their names.

The Beck brothers

Four of the identified images images belong to four of the sons of James and Minerva Beck of Teralba:

Victor David

Born in 1891, Victor enlisted 28/5/1915 aged 24 years and 4 months. His service records shows that he served in France and was awarded the Military medal on 23/6/17. He returned to Australia on 12/6/1919.

Claude William

Born in 1892. Claude enlisted on 21/12/1915 aged 23 years 5 months. His service records show that he served in France before he died of wounds in France on 6 March 1917, aged 24. He is buried in Trois Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck, France.

Charles Louis

Born in 1893, Louis enlisted on 10/3/1916 aged 22 years 9 months. His service records show that he served in France before returning to Australia in November 1919

Athol Glenmitchel

Born in 1897, Athol enlisted on 9/4/1915 aged 18 years 2 months. His service records show that he served in Gallipoli and France and was wounded two times in the course of the conflict. He returned to Australia on 30/1/1918.

To have one son away fighting would have been an ordeal for any family, but to have four would have been unimaginable

The boy's father James Beck died of cancer in November 1919, coinciding with the last son's return from France.

Walter William Thomas

Walter enlisted on 19/11/1915 at the age of 34 years 5 months. According to his service records he served in France before returning to Australia in October 1918.

Richard Tierney Casey

Richard enlisted on 1/5/1916 at the age of 21 years 11 months. According to his service records he served in France before returning to Australia 13/7/1919.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License