The effects of the First World War on the men (and two women) from the former Richmond municipality who enlisted in the Australian Infantry Forces are a microcosm of the whole dramatic scope of the ‘War to end wars’. Public memorials to these soldiers include the obelisk in the main street of Richmond outside the former Council Chambers, plus honour boards in churches and schools at Richmond, Campania and Colebrook.

Names on the memorials are listed according to the local government districts – or wards – of the former Richmond municipality. The wards were centred on the major villages

of Richmond (South Ward), Campania (Central) and Colebrook (North), and included the outlying hamlets of Yarlington and Rhyndaston (in North Ward) and Runnymede (in Central Ward).

The names listed on these memorials are not always consistent or complete.

Often they were entered on two or more memorials, according either to where the soldiers were born or to where they were working at the time of enlisting. Other men who served are not listed, although born and raised in the municipality. Some men with connections to a district volunteered elsewhere, including in other parts of Tasmania, interstate, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. What is particularly noticeable is the mobility of the Edwardian workforce. At least four men from either the Rhyndaston or the Buckland area joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, suggesting a lack of work opportunities at home.

Many volunteers came from an extended family: from the South Ward there were four Cooleys, four Smiths and three Wrights; from Central Ward there were three Barwicks, three Bowdens, five Kearneys, three McKenzies and three Tillacks; while from

the North Ward there were four Smiths. School honour rolls are incomplete and often inconsistent with the Town Hall Honour Board. For example, Richmond State School has sixty-one former students on its Board, and lists five (rather than four) Cooleys, three Thompsons and three Woolfords, with fourteen former pupils dying. Some families chose to remember their lost loved ones who were buried in Europe or the Middle East,

by adding their names to family headstones in local district cemeteries.

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