The good news travelled fast to Gympie | Gympie News | Local News in Gympie

T HE Armistice was signed 91 years ago in a railway carriage in the Compiegne Forest, France. This same carriage was also the venue for the signing of the 1940 Armistice between France and Germany. The carriage was taken to Berlin as a trophy of war and destroyed by the SS in 1945.

The Gympie Times reported and informed the people of Gympie throughout the four years of the Great War, with newspapers published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The war activities of locally enlisted men, casualty lists and war related articles were reported extensively by The Times.

LENORE TONKS brings us a snapshot of the state of the world from the Armistice to December 1919.

How Gympie received the news: Gympie Times: Tuesday, November 12, 1918. “The eagerly awaited news of the surrender of Germany was received at our office (The Times) shortly before 8 o’clock last night, in the form of an official announcement from Paris that the Armistice had been signed, with confirmation from Washington (USA) that the war had ended at 6am (Monday). The sensational news was at once posted at our office and within minutes the fire bell rang out joyously and spread the glad tidings with church bells and the bell on the Town clock each adding their quota to the paeans of victory. People gathered quickly round the Town Hall and within 20 minutes the Municipal Band had assembled to play the National Anthem.”

Tuesday 12 November, Gympie celebrated the Armistice with a great procession and Thanksgiving service. The day was declared a public holiday, shops and the mines ceased work and Council employees were granted a holiday. Citizens erected flags on every flag pole and improvised flagpoles, The Union Jack, the Australian flag and flags of the Allies were hung from verandahs and merchants decorated their business premises in honour of the event. There was a sense of joyousness in the air which could only come from peace with victory.

Before marching to Queen’s Park a dense throng congregated at the Town Hall where the procession formed. The Gympie Municipal Band led the parade, followed by the returned soldiers, most of who were in uniform, with Sergeant Alec Glasgow at their head. The Red Cross Society ladies were next, followed by the 800 cadets’ bugle band, then decorated motor cars and a fine tableau of Britannia. The Town Clerk, Mr. A.R. Hanson followed carrying Gympie’s honour flag in the Seventh War Loan, with the Mayor and dignities, association members and the Federal Band. At the rear were private vehicles and the procession reached from the Town Hall to the top of Commissioner’s Hill.

While Gympie and surrounding districts celebrated, London held a victory memorial service in Westminster Abbey, the Imperial Air Fleet organized a banquet with Commonwealth Generals attending and the Royal Navy held a tableau on the Thames River. The outpouring of emotion and relief that the war had finally ended after years of carnage radiated throughout the Dominions and Allied countries.

While Allied countries basked in the triumph of victory the consequences of the Allied Blockage on Germany was catastrophic. Starvation and scurvy spread throughout Europe with men, women and children dying. The International Red Cross described hospitals in Europe as terrible – owing to the scarcity of drugs, linen and soap. Operations were done without anesthetics and patients wrapped in newspapers for warmth. In Vienna the city’s treasures were sold to buy food for the starving population. The Russian people infected with Spotted fever, typhoid and typhus died in their millions. In Northern China a cholera epidemic swept the country. Even Britain eradicated rats to stop the threat of gastric illness. The USA sent medical supplies to Europe and the Greek Orthodox Church raised a fund appeal to save the sick and undernourished children.

The Armistice was signed at the 11th minute of the 11th. day of the 11th. month, 1918. Yet it was nearly seven months after that date that the Versailles Peace Treaty was finally signed by all parties. Thirty-seven countries had attended the Conference with Allied countries thirsting for revenge, and eager for more land and more money. US President, Woodrow Wilson headed the Conference and warned that revenge against Germany and her supporters wouldn’t work. German mandates are given to Allied countries with Australia receiving Naura Island and German New Guinea. After heated debates, disagreements, protests and redrafts, the Treaty was finally agreed to on June 28, 1919. The tough terms meted out to Germany were to have catastrophic results in the years following the Armistice.

Trade was on the agenda again with Australian rabbit skin exported to Britain. The hatiers and furriers absorbed the skins and with the advent of winter the price of fur increased. France and Italy wanted Australian foods and boots. There was a prediction that there would be a glut of Australian meat in Britain, while in Australia there was a sugar shortage. Australian wool was sold at Bradford, U.K. and some of the top prices were bales from Queensland. King George V had discovered Australian wines and resumed stocking his wine vaults, which covered a quarter of an acre under St. James Palace.

The British monarch obviously enjoyed the delights of refilling his wine racks, though he suffered a family tragedy when his youngest son, Prince John died in 1919. For other royal families the war and its aftermath left some without a throne and the indignity of living in exile. Many Royals fled to safety but the Russian Royal family was assassinated at Yekaterinburg in 1918, before the war had ended. In Austria the Government asked Emperor Karl to resign and there was to be an investigation into the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, the catalyst for the First World War. In Bavaria ex-king Ludwig III is forced to abdicate.

Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II having fled Germany was living under house arrest in Holland. Post War social attitudes were changing rapidly with women testing the waters and breaking down the boundaries of male establishments. A Queensland woman, Mrs Wheeler was one lady who received a well-deserved welcome when she returned to Australia from London in November 1919. A large body of returned soldiers and 5000 people were in the Rockhampton streets and at the station to see her driven to the Town Hall.

Mrs Wheeler had spent six years in London and was the link between the battlefields of Europe and the lonely bush districts of Central Queensland, as she devoted her time to looking after the interests of the soldiers hailing from around Rockhampton and inland districts. A movement has been established to petition the Governor, Sir Hamilton J. Gould-Adams to secure Royal recognition for services rendered to Central Queensland by Mrs Wheeler.

The exploits, bravery and daring of some war heroes are still remembered long after their deaths. British nurse Edith Cavell, who helped over 200 Allied soldiers escape from Belgium, received iconic status after her execution by the Germans in 1915. In 1919 an extensive search for her remains discovered her grave in a Belgium cabbage field. Her body was shipped to England and buried at Norwich Cathedral.

No country, even the victorious, was exempt from the after effects of the Great War and many suffered strikes, revolutions, unrest and starvation.

In Britain the House of Commons finally agreed to a 46 hour week and it was moved in the House that 10 million pounds be granted for old aged pensions. At one sitting in November 1919 Colonel Ashley asked the Prime Minister if he would mark the nation’s deep and lasting gratitude to the fallen by transferring the body of an unknown private soldier from the field for ceremonial burial in Westminster Abbey.

Many young Londoners were intent on moving forward and people kicked up their heels when the latest dancing craze gripped the city. But the War Office was oblivious to all this frivolity when it faced one of its most daunting dilemmas – how to dispose of 4 million gallons of rum, originally for frontline soldiers, but now left abandoned at an Indian dock.

Thirteen months after the Armistice overseas cables noted that the sale of Anzac horses realised one million pounds, but 9000 remained unsold in Egypt. In January 1919, an article from London went into fine detail on the Turkish defences at Gallipoli and wondered how the Anzacs’ survived the enemy onslaught. A feature of this year’s Anzac Day is a planned pilgrimage to the graves of Australian and New Zealand soldiers in the United Kingdom.

The organisers hope to place flowers on every grave of the 2135 Australians buried in 343 cemeteries.

Many soldiers returned home from the hostilities – injured, shell-shocked and above all, angry. A few days before the Queensland Labour Day procession police feared that disgruntled soldiers would disrupt the event.

A number of returned soldiers are committed for trial on charges of tarring and feathering a former politician. The Prime Minister, Mr. W. Hughes’ scheme to employ ex-soldiers meets with opposition from many unions because there’s already too much unemployment in the trade area. The Commonwealth War Service Homes Commission is created with low interest loans for returned soldiers.

In May 1919 the RSL discussed Anzac Day but no holiday was granted by the Government. With peace now declared the Imperial Commonwealth Graves Commission has the unenviable task of planning and selecting sites for cemeteries and memorials. At the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, a cenotaph is to be erected to fallen soldiers. In honour of the British Army, the local people at Herchies, near Mons, France, conduct an imposing ceremony and unveil a monument where the last shots of the war were fired on November 11.

The French town of Brettoneux-Proyart is to be the site for one memorial and a hotel at Ypres, to be run by the Red Cross, is proposed to house visitors to Australian grave sites. There are plans for divisional memorials in France, including the Australian Light Horse.

A decision is also made that no private memorials will be allowed in French war cemeteries. The bodies of Australian soldiers are exhumed from the battlefields, but there is no trace of others killed in action. It is agreed that Australia will have control over the graves at Gallipoli. The brass from the captured German cannon “Big Bertha,” named after Bertha Krupp, owner of the Krupp Works, is to be used in Australian commemorative tablets and A.I.F. headstones are to be made in Australia. In Britain 2 million yards of ribbon is ordered to accompany Commonwealth war medals.

These events are just a glimpse of the 14 months following the signing of the Armistice. While some actions during this period and beyond accelerated the onset of World War II and destroyed countries, cultures and monarchies, other happenings heralded important developments in health, communications and the beginning of incredible technology. It hastened changes in social attitudes towards women, fashion for both men and women, reforms in working conditions and social services. It altered how future warfare would be conducted and was a lesson in how not to treat defeated countries.

Organisers hope to place flowers on every grave of the 2135 Australians...