As we commemorate Anzac Day – I’m sharing some local stories to recognise and remember those who sacrificed so much, so we can enjoy what we have today.
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Robert Munckton, known as Bob or Bluey, was the first ‘man’ from Dubbo to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force on the 17th August 1914…although at just 19 years old he was really still a boy.
War had been declared against Germany for just three days, when Bob returned home in the evening, and in a serious manner, asked his mother to allow him to “do his bit” for the Empire.
Bob attended the Dubbo District School, and then All Saints’ College at Bathurst.
Then at 19, Bob became the first Dubbo local to answer the call, and was at the first landing of the Australian troops at Gallipoli on April 25.
On his voyage over, he wrote to his mother about his excitement, and lack of fear about what lay ahead. Bob’s colleagues would report in The Dubbo Liberal of his cheerfulness, courageousness and fierce determination, describing him as “the lad who blazed the track for others”.
In August 1915, Bob was killed in action at Gallipoli…he’s buried at the Lone Pine Cemetery.
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Commemorating those who served, and remembering those who died.
Lest we forget.
What a sacrifice those men made but we must think of the mothers they left behind who worried about them every day and dreaded the telegram delivery man coming to their door
LEST wE FORGET