Lawson Combined Services Club

The History of the Lawson Cenotaph
Here we are now, Honour Avenue and Douglass Square, to remember and honour our returned service men and women and our war dead.
What we now know as Douglass Square was set aside in 1861 as a camping reserve for stock traveling along the road between Bathurst and Penrith.
Names for the area changed throughout the early development of Lawson. It was first called Grand Reserve in the 1880s, then Grand Square. It was then known as Station Square in 1910, Douglass Place in 1918, Railway Square around 1920 and Central Square in 1932, before the name settled in the second half of the 20th century as Douglass Square.
The Geographical Names Board of NSW indicates that the name Douglass Square commemorates John William Douglass - Wall, aged 20 who was killed in action on 20th July 1916 at Fleur Baix, France. He was the son of James Wall a Councilor and President of the Shire. The name and spelling of Douglass was from his mother's maiden name, Avelyn Mary Douglass.
Similarly, Honour Avenue was first named Broad Street. The name changed in 1918 to Honour Avenue.
Douglass Square was defined in 1915 as the entry point to the proposed memorial avenue, to be established to commemorate those local servicemen who saw action in the Great War.
The Memorial Avenue was dedicated by Lady Edgeworth David in 1918 and the finished War Memorial was unveiled in 1923 by Sir Walter Davidson, then Governor of NSW.
The completion of the Memorial in 1923 changed the structure and appearance of the Douglass Square giving it a higher degree of formality. The memorial was designed and constructed under the direction of the war veteran and architect, Major General, Sir Charles Rosenthal who also designed the memorial at Blackheath.
The Memorial was built in the form of a Triumphal Arch and constructed of local sandstone. Sir John Sulman, then a part time resident of Lawson, designed and oversaw the layout of the formal garden avenue behind the memorial in conjunction with F.V. Wilkner the Shire Engineer.
Who was John Douglass Wall
John enlisted on 6th July 1915 with the rank of private. He was 19 when he embarked with C Company of the 30th battalion of infantry for the great adventure on the 9th November 1915 for the Suez, then on to the Western Front of Europe.
He was killed in action 20th July 1916 at Fleurbaix, France, aged 20. His exact place of burial is unknown.
He was of unassuming height; 5 foot, five and a half inches, and not married.
It seems that he was in trouble several times, in fact four times, for insubordination, suffering numerous days confined the barracks or assigned some form of field punishment.
He was wounded in action prior to his death.
He was awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
The battle in which John died was called the Battle of Fleubaix,( pronounced floo bay ) but many would also know it as the Battle of Fromelles, July 19-20, 1916
The battle was intended as a diversion to the Battle of the Somme that was taking place about 80 kilometres to the south. Fromelles was a combined operation between British troops and the AIF. It would be the first occasion that the AIF saw action on the Western Front.
After a night and a day of fighting, 1,500 British and 5,533 Australian soldiers were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The Australian War Memorial describes the battle as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history."
It was a decisive victory for Germany, and the Australian and British losses were sustained without the Allies gaining any ground.
The British General's battle plan called for infantry to rush past the first line of German trenches in a surprise attack during broad daylight, following an artillery bombardment, and to advance a total of about 400 metres to a secondary line. By the time the attack was ready to be launched, its purpose as a preliminary diversion to the main action at the Somme had passed. However, the British General was still keen to proceed.
The diggers went "over the top" at 6 pm after 11 hours of preliminary bombardment. Most elements of the Australian forces quickly gained their objectives. But on the right flank, the Australian and the British were cut to pieces while attempting to cross no man’s land. A survivor, W. H. "Jimmy" Downing, later recalled: "the air was thick with bullets, swishing in a flat, crisscrossed lattice of death. Hundreds were mown down in the flicker of an eyelid, like great rows of teeth knocked from a comb."[
The battle was responsible for one of the greatest losses of Australian lives in one 24-hour period. The 5,533 casualties were equivalent to the combined total Australian losses in the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars.
The bodies of Allied soldiers killed were buried in mass graves by the Germans shortly after the battle. After the war these graves were moved to the Australian War Cemetery near Fromelles.
This is where John is believed to be buried.