On Thursday 16 October 1919, the Loyal Burrangong District Lodge No. 26 unveiled its Honor Roll dedicated to 31 of its members who had served in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I.

While performing the ceremony of unveiling the Honor Roll, Brother Perkins ‘asked all to stand in silence for a while in reference to the fallen brave. Afterwards, three hearty cheers were given for the King and the AIF.’

About 16.5 per cent of members of the NSW branch of the MUIOOF, equalling 5260 men, answered the call to arms and ‘875 made the supreme sacrifice at an average age of 23 years’.

Manchester Unity did all it could to assist their soldier members and soldiers’ dependents.

‘Sick pay granted to soldier members worked out at £17 10/ each.’

The ‘brotherhood raised £8,000 per annum totalling £40,000 throughout the war – by each civilian member giving 1d per week to assist the soldiers and their dependents.

The Lodge loaned them money, in genuine cases, repayable in ten years, free of interest…. In assisting war widows, the lodge had paid off mortgages and bought and erected cottages.’

John Edward Prothero was one of the local men that the MUIOOF assisted.

He was born in Malmsbsury, Victoria in 1881 and came to the Young district with his parents at age 9. He married Ellen Woods in 1908, had four children and they lived at Wombat.

In 1915 he enlisted in the AIF and served with the 56th Battalion and the 1st Battalion. ‘During his three years active service he was wounded and gassed and never fully recovered his robust health.’

He was allocated a soldier settlement block at Kingsvale but was forced to relinquish it due to his health.

His service file in the National Archives contains a letter he wrote to the Base Records, Victoria Barracks, asking for his medical history in order for him to draw his sick pay from his Lodge after he was discharged from the AIF in 1918.

The MUIOOF head office in Sydney also pursued the matter on his behalf. He died at Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick in 1931, aged just 49.

The MUIOOF also assisted families of those who are listed on the Honor Roll in the Museum, including: Guy William Poplin, formerly a mechanical dentist of Young; Urban Joseph Trudgett (listed as H.J. Trudgett), a carpenter from Morangorell; Ernest Henry Hinton, formerly a shunter on NSW Railways, whose family lived at Tubbul and James Taylor, formerly a labourer, Monteagle, who was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. Taylor’s mother, Mary, saw four of her sons sent off to war.

A second son, Charles, also died at Gallipoli while Herbert and Fred returned home.