EATHER has always been a well-known name in the North West and it was estimated that close to 40 extended family members signed up for the first world war.
They were well represented in the Boggabri and Narrabri districts but others came from the western plains and the Hunter Valley.
The most decorated soldier among the Eathers was Richmond Cornwallis Eather, who was born at Goodooga on 18 January 1888 and grew up in Boggabri, attending Boggabri Public School.
On the front line he had the distinction of winning the Military Medal as Sergeant Eather and the Military Cross and Bar after receiving a commission in the field.
He was 27 years and three months of age and a station manager when he enlisted in June 1915. Originally placed in the 15th Battalion, he was transferred to the 47th Battalion, arriving on the Western Front with the rank of corporal in May 1916.
In October he was advised that he had been awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in the face of the enemy.
His superior officers recognised his potential for higher rank and he was sent to England in late 1916 for four months’ training with a view to obtaining a commission in the field.
Two months after his promotion to lieutenant, he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty as battalion intelligence officer and also for maintaining communications with attacking companies after the signalling officer had been wounded.
“He repeatedly passed through heavy enemy barrages to bring in wounded and was untiring in his efforts, under heavy shellfire, in maintaining telephone wires to the front line,” the citation read.
Late in the war he was awarded the Bar to the Military Cross for his actions in the attack on the Beaurevoir line, east of Peronne in France.
The citation read that he had taken a forward role in the Allied offensive and when the objective was achieved, he went across to the right flank and under heavy fire brought back information that the battalion was under pressure. As a result, a flank defence was quickly established. Lieutenant Eather then went forward again, passing back valuable information in relation to the offensive.
The soldier had a tough time and was hospitalised for trench fever in 1917 and was struck down by pyrexia and severe influenza before he could return to Australia on the Shropshire, leaving England in April 1919.
A younger brother, William Irwin Eather, was an 18-year-old stockman when he signed up in May 1916. He also won the Military Medal on the Western Front in April 1918, before contracting malaria. He was given a medical discharge from No. 4 Australian General Hospital at Randwick on his return to Australia.
Ivo Mack Eather, also the son of John Roland and Harriet Eather, signed up in October 1916 at the age of 33 and was attached to the 35th Battalion on the Western Front. He was wounded in action in November 1917 but returned to his unit three months later.
In April 1918, however, he received a severe gunshot wound to the right thigh, causing a compound fracture of the femur, and was invalided home before the end of the war.
The youngest brother, Kenneth Stewart, had only just turned 18 when he enlisted a few weeks before the end of the war. A clerk, living with the family in Toronto, he was not required for duty.
MARIE HOBSON, GUNNEDAH & DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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