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Locals lined up to serve

The 25th Light Horse Regiment.

Narrogin's military history began two years before Australia was called to arms in 1912 when 30 men joined the B squadron of the 25th Light Horse Regiment.

In that year, part-time military service was compulsory and men were recruited from Narrogin and Pingelly specifically for their horseman skills.

According to Maurie White in his book Memorial I, there was no problem filling the Narrogin soldier quota and, apparently, there was such enthusiasm that 30 men enrolled in the regiment.

"These mounted men of the two local troops became a familiar spectacle in Narrogin streets. Smartly turned out, well drilled, they wore with pride the badge of the regiment," Mr White states in his book.

The men's senior officers included Arthur Charles Niquet Olden, a local dentist who was set to serve in the 10th Light Horse in the Middle East.

Lt Olden later laid the first stone at the Narrogin Memorial Park.

Between March 19 and 24, 1914, the whole 25th Light Horse Regiment met, convening from as far as Donnybrook at the Boondyne camp along Wickepin Road.

War broke out less than six months later and most men in the regiment eagerly enlisted in the army - it was two years to the day the 25th Light Horse Regiment began.

"By mid-January, 81 recruits had been accepted from the Narrogin district ... local enthusiasm was so great that in early 1915 a recruiting office was set up in Narrogin," Mr White states in his book.

The momentum of war did not slow down and the Narrogin Observer reported 561 men had been passed physically fit to serve. The Observer's editor E.S Hall stated the Narrogin district achieved the remarkable distinction of having the highest number of men per capita in the British Empire on the frontline.

Throughout the war, the region lost more than 200 men.