Brunswick Town Hall Honour Board

Image courtesy B. Garrett

This Honour Board is located in the foyer of the Brunswick Town Hall, corner of Sydney Road and Dawson Street, Brunswick. If you are looking for a WW1 soldier with connections to either Brunswick or Coburg, you should check it out, as people often moved between the two suburbs a number of times over their lifetimes.

There are names on this honour board, for example, that appear in the Coburg Memorial Avenue of Trees at Lake Reserve, Coburg. Hector Batt is one of those. Others, such as Reginald Bartram, appear on both the Coburg and Brunswick Town Hall Honour Boards. Bartram is also remembered in the Frankston Avenue of Honour where most of his family lived, reminding us that some men’s service is commemorated in a number of places, so it is always worth looking at the area where a man was born or went to school, as well as where he lived (or where his parents lived) when he went to war or where he lived on his return.

Some of the men listed here were connected to Coburg through their sporting associations. For example, Leslie Agnew and Roderick Aitchison, both Brunswick men, were members of the Coburg Harriers Club.

Victor Aldred lived in Brunswick when he enlisted, but his family once lived in Coburg and he attended Coburg State School then Coburg High School. He is remembered in those places, as well as at the Brunswick Town Hall.

And so it goes.

Apart from anything else, the Brunswick Town Hall Honour Board is a beautiful piece of work in an elegant foyer. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a look just to remind yourself that, despite all the changes to the landscape wrought by the massive high-rise buildings springing up all around us in the suburbs of Coburg and Brunswick, there are still some buildings that retain a sense of continuity and a feeling of serenity and dignity for those who venture inside.