Everyone likes a march and this week we show E Company of the 20-54th Battalion under Captain E. Stratton doing just that. It was November 11, 1933 and they marched up George Street and into Russell Street and halted opposite the court house and the newly constructed Carillon. It was the day the Carillon was officially opened and it happened in front of an enormous crowd (as is obvious in this photo).
The soldiers marched with their .303 rifle on their shoulder. Several military dignitaries were on the small dais to take the salute on the day, as seen in the photo.
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At the same time, 150 ex-servicemen, and members of the Bathurst sub-branch of the R.S. and S.I.L., along with visiting Diggers, marched from the William Street end, adding to the spectacle.
The militia took part on the northern side of the tower, where they lined up ready for proceedings.
A short time later, a guard, with reversed arms, was placed on the northern side of the Carillon.
Several of the volunteers had to obtain items of uniforms on loan which were sent over from Orange, as locals had yet to receive their full issue of clothing.
The 54th Australian Infantry Battalion was formed during the Great War and became a militia unit between that time and World War Two. It was disbanded in 1944.
Many Bathurstians joined and served with the unit.
It could be classified as practically a Central Western New South Wales unit.
When Lord Kitchener arrived in Bathurst on January 10, 1910, little did the locals know that the 54th would be formed because of his visit. Kitchener sailed to Australia as part of a world tour to offer the Australian Government certain recommendations on how our nation’s military forces might be reconstructed to serve the Empire in the future.
After the Commonwealth’s new Defence Act was enacted on January 1, 1911, the reorganisation began to take place. One initiative was to form compulsory senior cadet units, mainly based on participating schools, with instructors sourced locally from the militia units.
Several Bathurst schools formed units, including All Saints’, St Stanislaus’ College and the high school. Many of these Bathurst boys, if they were old enough, volunteered to serve during World War One.
From the various existing units, 43 battalions were formed in 1912. Up until 1918, other units were formed after Australia was divided into 93 battalion regions. Some of the already raised battalions could cover more than one area - in some cases, that could be as many as four.
The history of the 54th is somewhat complicated and there were many changes to the make-up of the unit over many years.
In December 1913, a number of newspapers around the nation carried the Commonwealth Government’s notice, authorised by Mr. S.A. Pethedridge, secretary for the Department of Defence, informing all boys who reached the age of 14 years in January and February 1914 that they were to register for naval and military training.
Failure to do so could lead to a fine of £10. Those who needed to register could obtain their forms from their local post office or the area officer of the Army Training Area, of which Bathurst was one.
By World War One, the 54th was receiving more publicity.
The Bathurst Times recorded the arrival of two military recruitment marches in early February 1916, by which time the successful withdrawal from Gallipoli had taken place.
Listing the names of the many dead and wounded in local newspapers brought the seriousness of the situation in Europe and the Middle East to the fore.
Many of the volunteers had never been out of NSW, let alone Australia, and by becoming a volunteer in the army they could be off for a great adventure - or that is what so many of them thought.
