To Honour Your Name: In Memory of The Southport School Old Boys Who Lost Their Lives in the Great War

The fledgling community of The Southport School lost 52 of its Old Boys serving in the First World War. For a School which was only established in 1901 this represented a considerable proportion of its former students – a loss keenly felt by the School’s families and wider community.

The biographies of the Old Boys, many of them barely men, tell of the human loss to families, communities and the nation behind the unimaginable statistics of that War. There is heroism and sacrifice, but also boredom and stoicism in their deaths in action, or due to wounds, accident, sickness and foul play. Each young soldier’s individual story is drawn from School and government archives, newspapers and family histories. The biographical sections are placed within a wider historical context of Australia’s military history. The construction of the School’s chapel as a memorial to these Old Boys, and subsequently others who died serving their country, rounds out the book.