Group questions memorial wall

In a letter replying to questions from David Crann of Historic Victoria Park at the Town's March 18 meeting, Mayor Trevor Vaughan said the Victoria Park RSL had undertaken a great deal of research to identify the names to appear.

"Upon receipt of the RSL Enrolment Roll, the Town will be reviewing this against a list of names currently on record, identifying the differences and undertaking research to find out more about the servicemen on this list," he said.

"Criteria set for inclusion on enrolment rolls tend to vary. Some organisations may choose criteria that limit inclusion to servicemen that lived in the area at the time of enrolment, while others are much broader " that a person was born, educated, lived or their next of kin lived in the present boundaries at any time up to their death, while serving during officially accepted periods of defined conflict with either Australian or allied forces."

On March 24, the Gazette highlighted concerns by local historian Neville Browne that the RSL branch was rewriting, not recording history by only including 432 names when a 1914 committee found a minimum of 482 names and another 50 were later added to marble tablets that now make up a memorial in Cannington.

On April 14, Mr Crann replied to Mr Vaughan questioning why the original name records in the program from the 1917 unveiling of Victoria Park's original memorial were not used for the new wall.

"This was the benchmark and anything less is an insult to those men who enlisted," he said.

"I am aware different criteria might result in more extensive lists " the sub branch spent five years researching names and consulted widely and sought assistance from WAGS, AIF Project, AWM, National Archives, Battye Library Records Section, Trove National Library of Australia, Indigenous Australians at War, Mapping our ANZACs, WWI Pictorial Honour Roll of West Australians, Electoral Rolls and Census records, along with descendants of these fine servicemen/women," he said.