A century on from the end of World War I we acknowledge their service …
Lest we forget.
Lance Sergeant James Arthur Cornwall
Born: 22 June 1884 Nar Nar Goon. Died: 1 October 1965 Heidelberg.
Enlisted: 31 December 1915 aged 31
Served: Western Front
James was the son of William and Mary Cornwall, who settled along what is now Carne Road in the Toomuc Valley back in the 1870s, having driven sheep from Melbourne.
He was working as a shearer in Queensland when he enlisted from Warwick.
James found himself in France in 1916-17 and was twice wounded in action, the second time suffering a serious wound to the abdomen and being invalided to hospital in Oxford.
While in England, James married Emily Dorothea Harry of Kensington, London on 24 August 1918. The honeymoon did not last long, as James returned to his unit in France the following month as the war was coming to a close.
In 1921 James acquired a 43 acre soldiers‘ settler block at Caldermeade but struggled there because of the size of the property, which was eventually carved up for other soldier’s farms after he was evicted.
James felt let down by authorities took his grievance all the way to the Victorian Premier. The family (which eventually grew to 10 children) ended up at Tooradin, where James was actively involved in local community and sporting activities.
This is an extract from Patrick Ferry’s book A Century After The Guns Fell Silent – Remembering the Pakenham District’s WWI Diggers 1914-18.
For more details on this and other profiles in the book, head to the website www.pakenhamww1.com
