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Yass in 1914 was a small rural town of less than 2,000 people in the southern tablelands of NSW, where fine wool production was dominant. A further 1,000 - 1,500 people considered themselves part of the district of Yass. When Great Britain declared war in 1914, it was assumed in Australia that the country was automatically at war. Prime Minister Andrew Fisher famously declared that Australia was behind Britain to "the last man and last shilling." The collapse of the wool market caused by the withdrawal of Britain, Italy and Germany from the market fully underlined the war for the whole district. Yet, within the first two weeks of the announcement of war the Patriotic War Fund in Yass chaired by the Mayor, Alderman Browning had raised six hundred and sixty pounds. Young, unmarried men from Yass wanted to fight and some of the first to enlist were Harold Williamson, Rees Jones, Roy Davis, Robert Cowan, Parkes Shaw, George Puckett and S.J. Spratt. So many young people, young men as soldiers, young women as nurses, enlisted from Yass. Those who stayed at home believed that they too were fighting the war. Every sock, boot or shirt they made was to help an Aussie hero win the war. In the four years of hostilities one organisation in the small community, the Yass branch of the Red Cross, was able to send 7,750 articles of clothing to the Red Cross store, and raised 2,026 pounds. 522 enlisted and of those 100 died if you count the names recorded on the Shrine of Remembrance in the entrance to the Yass Memorial Hall, which was built after the war as a practical expression of respect for those who had paid with their lives. Cheryl Mongan and Richard Reid, authors of "We have not forgotten" question those figures. They suggest that approximately 1,300 persons enlisted from the Yass district and that 282 did not return. Staggering figures for a town and its district that numbered only 3,000 in 1920! It is their story that is being commemorated
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