PHOTOGRAPH (DIGITAL): HAROLD LAKE FORMAL PORTRAIT, CIRCA 1915

The Lake family were one of the earliest families to come to Subiaco. Joseph Lake was one of 20 local members nominated for the first Subiaco Roads Board. He was not successful in winning a place in the election but hhis continued hard work was recognised with his favoured candidacy and successful election to the inaugural Subiaco Municipal Council the following year.

By 1896, Joseph's family arrived from Melbourne and at first, they camped in the tent. Their first house was built on the south-west corner of Rokeby and Barker Roads. It was made of hessian on a wooden frame, the hessian dipped in a cement slurry so it dried firm. The cloth windows swiveled at a point mid-way down the frame so that the top half of the window swung in and the bottom half swung outwards. Harold would later say that his was one of the first half dozen houses in Subiaco.

In 1899, Lake family moved into their own weatherboard house in Bagot Road Subiaco. Joseph built the house and it still stands at the corner of Bagot and Salisbury Road, Subiaco.

Harold Lake was born 1886 Kensington Park, South Australia. The youngest of the four children of Joseph and Sarah Lake.

Harold and Laurie were members of the Subiaco Small Bore Rifle Club and, in a team with two other members, won the Stevens trophy, shooting off over six weeks with Harold the overall winner.

Harold saw service in the 11th and 51st Battalion. The 51st came to be identified as a purely West Australia Battalion. In doing so, he participated in the one stirring cause to impact on Australian society for the rest of the century. Harold enlisted as a volunteer on July 15th, 1915 in Perth. At the time he was a clerk in the Commercial Bank Subiaco and lived at Swanbourne Terrace, Cottesloe WA. Harold's medical report describes him as 29 5/12th's years old, 5'7,1/2" tall, 1321bs in weight, with fresh complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair and no distinctive marks. He was assigned to the 10th re-enforcement of the 11th Battalion which camped at Blackboy Hill in the Darling scarp outside Perth. He embarked on the "Themistocles" in Fremantle on the 13th October 1915, for the Suez Canal and would be away for four and a half years.

Harold enlisted too late to take part in the fighting at Gallipoli and after tedious training in the desert he was shipped to France were he fought for a year on the Somme as one of the first AIF battalions to fight in France. After recuperation, furlough and attendance at training courses for nine months in England Harold returned to the Front and participated in the recapture of the town of Villers-Bretonneux in extraordinary circumstances. He was awarded the Military Medal for his efforts to retrieve the Lewis Gun when under intense enemy fire. During this engagement Harold was again wounded and was carried out of France not to return until after the Armistice was signed in November 11th 1918.

At the end of the war, Harold was transferred to from the 51st Battalion to administration headquarters. There he worked in Horseferry Road, London in the AIF Records Branch. It permitted him to get to know London and travel on weekends to Wales and Cumberland and other parts of the United Kingdom. On one occasion he arrived late on Monday morning, AWOL a few hours but was saved by the duty officer who mentioned that he must have been late due to some difficulties on the northern trunk line and Harold readily agreed. Harold remained in London until March 1920, when he returned on board the "Zealandic" for West Australia.