The Albion Park Rifles - Remembering our Anzacs

This week marks 100 years since the start of World War One. In this post we remember our local Anzacs.

 

In 1870, Captain Edward H Weston of Weston’s Meadows at Albion Park, together with a band of men from the Macquarie River joined the volunteer movement with forty men enrolling at a meeting at the Albion Park Hotel. A further twenty-three men from Shellharbour Village later joined the movement.

 

The Illawarra Light Horse Corps was supplemented by the formation of a reserve rifle corps and civilian rifle club. In 1892 Captain Weston and the Illawarra Cavalry resigned,  however the Corps was soon reformed and carried on through the years until the outbreak of World War One in 1914.

 

During this time, the Light Horse Company camped at Sydney Showground only 24 days after the war had been declared. The Corps at this time was led by local Dunmore resident Captain Colin Fuller.

 

In 1917, a further 250 Albion Park men went into camp with the Light Horse Company.

 

The first soldier to arrive home from war was Trooper Robert Parkinson who was wounded at Gallipolli in 1916, and on his arrival he received a soldier’s welcome when he stepped off the train. The station yard was full of horse drawn vehicles and there were even two motor cars, one in which he led a procession from the station to the Agricultural Hall at Albion Park.  A dinner was held in his honour and speeches were given by the Mayor, Headmaster, Station Manager, Post Master and Bank Manager.

 

During the Second World War the Light Horse carried out patrols, rifle drills and trained new horses from their camp at Oak Flats.

Albion Park Rifles in the early 1900s
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries.