Forgotten war flag gets colour back
The Anzac landing at Gallipoli had ended in defeat and withdrawal, and it was becoming evident that World War I still had some way to run.
Back in WA the 44th Battalion was preparing to do its bit and made its training base the Claremont Showground, where it was adopted by the local community.
At a public parade at the Showground in May 1916, Claremont mayor G.P. Stevens presented the 44th with its colour, or flag.
Mr Stevens told the crowd that the people of Claremont trusted the men would come home safely and bring the colour back to the municipality after the war.
The battalion sailed for the war in June, and the colour was given to the mayor of Oxford for safekeeping until the conflict ended.
In 1923, the flag was put behind glass and hung in the Claremont council chambers, but at some point vanished from public view.
Until now. A WA Museum spokesman said the colour was taken into its collection in 1971.
Ulli Broeze-Hoernemann, a senior conservator with the WA Museum, said that when she was given the task of restoring the colour a number of the threads had deteriorated.
She worked for about three weeks to revive it and the colour was installed at the Freshwater Bay Museum in Claremont last week. Its exhibition The Western Suburbs at War will highlight the stories of the 44th and the 10th Light Horse Regiment.
It opens to the public tomorrow and runs until December.
