State: New South Wales, Australia
Issued on: Return
Date of presentation: 02/07/1901
Number issued: 1
Gold pendant, suitably inscribed, to:
WELCOME HOME.
CORPORAL WHEREATT’S RETURN.
WHEN it became known a couple of weeks ago that our old townsman, Mr Alfred WHEREATT, was to make his return from service in South Africa where he had spent the last 16 months in service of his King and country, it was determined not to allow the occasion to pass without recognising in some substantial form the manner in which Mr (now Corporal) WHEREATT had represented his portion of the State in defence of the rights of the Motherland. Consequently, a movement set on foot to raise sufficient funds to present our returned soldier with something that would show him that his fellow townsmen were not unmindful of his patriotism and pluck. Messrs J. Warn and S. Cook undertook to wait on the citizens with the result that a sum of money large enough was raised to purchase a neat gold medal and also present a purse of sovereigns.
The meeting took place in the Crookwell Hall on Tuesday evening last, and although the weather was unpropitious there was a goodly gathering of citizens. Mr J. Tozer, J.P., was voted the chair, and the Royal toast having been honoured, proposed the toast of “Our Guest”, in an appropriate speech. This was ably supported by Messrs Geo. McDonald, R.A. Howland, Spiers, Edwards, Cook, Warn and others. A couple of musical items having been given, Corporal WHEREATT rose to respond and was received with cheers.
He said – “Mr Chairman and Gentlemen – I am exceedingly grateful to Mr Tozer for the very kind way in which he has proposed the toast of my health and to the company for the enthusiastic manner in which they have honoured it. I can assure you, gentlemen, I thoroughly appreciate the kind expressions you have been so good to address towards me, and I feel that you have set me a difficult task to adequately thank you. I well remember some 16 months ago, when I obeyed the call to duty and was accepted as a member of the Bushmen’s contingent which was destined to play such a prominent part in the fight in South Africa for the paramountcy of British rule in the great continent, how you made that duty the lighter by your many expressions of goodwill. It was hard – and only those who have been put to the test can fully realise it – it is hard, I say, for one to tear oneself away, not only from those pleasant associations with which one has been connected for many years, with a certain presentment that the farewell one then takes may be a long and last farewell. On that occasion when I said “good-bye” to you all, you made that departure the less hard to bear by the words of encouragement you then gave, and , gentlemen, it is most gratifying, I assure you, to return again after 16 months of service and find that my welcome home is as sincere and hearty as were the good wishes for my welfare when absent and for my safe return. Whatever I might be as a soldier, I assure you I am no orator, and I am afraid my vocabulary is too weak to fully set out my real feelings. I am pleased to be back amongst you all again, and although I would not shirk my responsibilities if duty called again, I have had enough of soldier’s life to satisfy me for many years to come. War is a terrible thing, and unless there is complete justification for entering upon it, the man or person or nation who brings about war is worse than a murderer – he or it is many times a murderer. I do not introduce any feelings of partisanship just here, but you will permit me to say that Mr Kruger, who now skulks away in some secure corner of the Continent of Europe, and [illegible] egging from such safe vantage ground his poor deluded countrymen on to continue a useless and cruel struggle – he is the man at whose door this horrible and bloody struggle can be laid. England had no alternative, if she would protect her subjects in South Africa and maintain her supremacy there, but to accept the challenge so arrogantly thrown out by Paul Kruger and his burghers, who were going to drive the British into the sea. How far they have succeeded, their [illegible] wrecked homes, the loss of thousands of valuable lives, Kruger’s present position – a fugitive – aye worse, a deserter, is sufficient reply. However, as I said before, I am glad to be back again in sunny New South Wales, back among so many kind and earnest friends, whom I again thank for the warm welcome home that has been accorded me this evening”.
The chairman, after a few further musical items, then presented Corporal WHEREATT with a gold medal and purse of sovereigns on behalf of his well-wishers and friends. The medal bore the inscription – “Presented to Corporal A.C. Whereatt, by his fellow townsmen on his return to Crookwell from South Africa. 2 – 7 – 01”.
Corporal WHEREATT replied – “Mr Chairman and Gentlemen – Believe me when I say that I really cannot express to you in words my feelings this evening. I can assure you I felt prepared to receive a warm welcome, but I was wholly unprepared for so liberal an assurance of your appreciation of any little service I may have rendered my King and country. But if half the good things you have been pleased to address towards me are true, of if I was deserving half the praise bestowed on me, I would indeed be a worthy individual. However, I always did my best to uphold the reputation of the State and of the town and district and I might be pardoned for saying here the Crookwell fairly upheld her end of the stick in South Africa, represented as she was by such men as Lieut. HANLY, SPIERS, HURLEY, HEARN, BASHFORD (2), TULLY and others. We all did our best and it is a proud thing to be able to say; but it is something to be more proud to find one’s efforts appreciated in so substantial a manner as you have this evening honoured me with. I thank you, one and all, gentlemen, for your very great kindness, and I assure you that beautiful medal I shall ever cherish as one of my fondest possessions. I can assure you that I am doubly repaid for my efforts on behalf of the Mother country, and your kindness and generosity this evening will render me your everlasting debtor. Again, gentlemen, I thank you one and all.
CROOKWELL.
From Our Correspondent.
