FRAMED PHOTOGRAPHS - ARMADALE HONOUR ROLL COMMITTEE 1918

In April 1916 a delegation of local business people, members of local community organisations and members of the Armadale Kelmscott Road Board gathered to form a 'Roll of Honor' committee. Elected to the committee were Road Board Chair Thomas James, local grocer James Harrison, Armadale School headmaster John Richards, local butchers Walter and Albert Hand, John Linham and Herbert Dale Cullen. The committee was soon able to gain permission to erect a honor roll memorial at the intersection of Fourth Road and Eleventh Road on land donated by Hannah Saw. They then engaged Perth architect and town planner Harold Boas to draw up a design. The first design featured an obelisk made from Donnybrook stone but was deemed too expensive. Instead Robert Law, the manager of the Armadale Brickworks agreed to donated enough bricks to build the obelisk and it would sit on steps of stone from a local quarry.
On 29 July 1916 work began on preparing the site for construction. Two weeks later Marian Cullen, the wife of Herbert, the committee secretary, was invited to lay the first brick followed by a student from the five schools in the district. Over the next four months volunteers constructed the memorial and on 16 December the memorial with its four honor roll listing those who had enlisted and been killed from the Armadale, West Armadale, Beenup (Byford) and Bedfordale localities was unveiled by the Western Australian Governor, Sir Harry Barron. The Kelmscott and Roleystone communities were not involved with the memorial as they planned to construct their own memorial at a later date. The Armadale memorial was one of the earliest memorials of this type built in Australia. Other local government authorities quickly became interested in building their own similar memorials but the War Council did not want resources or fund-raising efforts to be distracted from the larger war effort and effectively banned the construction of any more war memorials of this type until after the end of the war.
This commemorative photograph of the Honor Roll Committee in created in1918 and was presented to Herbert Dale Cullen who was the founding secretary of the committee. It also featured photographs of the then committee which included Samuel Turner, Road Board member William Henry Lockard, Malcom Livingston, J. Mitchell, A. V. Cross, Anham Briggs, R Kenny and butcher and Road Board Member Walter Hand.

still featured some of the original members including