Dear friends,

You may have heard on our Facebook back in June that our WW1 Honour Board, which lists people from St Paul’s parish who served in the war, was recently removed for restoration by the Ballarat Furniture Company.

We are thrilled to announce that, thanks to the company’s diligent and careful work on the restoration, the Honour Board has been reinstalled on Tuesday, the 12th of August!

The board itself comprises two pieces, the face plate (bearing the names as in the picture) of the 177 Ballarat East Soldiers who served in the First World War and the support bracket (which attaches the board to the support pillar in the church’s south wall).

Most notably, the central column of names features letters that are hand-crafted out of darkwood. The Ballarat Furniture Company noted that this is a marvel in sign-writing, considering the board was only built in the two weeks after World War I ended.

We are deeply thankful to all parties involved, including the Australian Government Veteran Affairs Department grant fund, the parish council, and the staff at the Ballarat Furniture Company for making this restoration possible. We at St Paul’s will continue to honour and preserve the memory and legacy of those who served ‘to the Glory of God’.

You can read more about the honour board and the lives of the people connected, in Anne Doggett’s book: “Lives of Honour: Ballarat East and the Great War”. Copies are available for purchase in the church. For more information, see this page under our History Ribbon.