Quarry Hill State School No. 1165.

The first WWI Honour Roll at Quarry Hill State School was unveiled in April 1916 listing fifty three names. It has not been found. 

The 1914 – 1918 Honour Roll in the entrance foyer of the current school was unveiled in November 1920 and has one hundred and twenty eight names. The majority of these students attended Quarry Hill State School on the original site in Olinda Street. Some of them also attended the new school in Peel Street when it opened in 1911. Lieutenant-Colonel John Adams performed the unveiling at both ceremonies. He had been a teacher at the school from 1881 – 1886. 

The Honour Roll was refurbished in 1993 and officially unveiled in November that year by Major John Balsillie.

Twenty three of Quarry Hill’s ex-students died overseas during the war. Twenty were killed in action or died of wounds. Three died of illness, including one who died of influenza while waiting in England to return home at the end of the war. One who returned to Bendigo, died in 1920 and his death was attributed to his war service.

In total twenty five ex-students served during the Gallipoli campaign. 

Nine Quarry Hill boys left Albany with the first contingent in 1914 and served at Gallipoli. Three were wounded in action during the landing on April 25th 1915. Arthur Bolitho received gunshot wounds to the shoulder and leg. Edward Butterworth sustained a shrapnel wound to the shoulder. Harry Hibbert received a gunshot wound to the foot.

Before the evacuation in December 1915 Noel Edwards and Roy Barclay had been killed in action, Russell Pearson had died of diphtheria, and six more been wounded in action – Percy Pinder, John Adams, Albert Burnett, Sid Hannan, Francis Smith and William Long.

The Head teacher during the war years was Mr John A Roach. The staff and students were actively involved in many fundraising activities supporting the war effort. A “Queen of Queens” competition in December 1916 raised £62/2/10 for the State Schools’ Patriotic Fund. Their efforts resulted in the raising of £309/1/3 in 1916 which placed the Quarry Hill School ahead of all the schools in the Bendigo district in the matter of collections for the Patriotic Fund. 

On Arbour Day in June 1917 memorial trees were planted in the school grounds. These included a fir tree for Lieutenant Benjamin Noel Edwards, KIA at Gallipoli on 8th August 1915, a red flowering gum for Private Roy Austin Barclay, KIA at Lone Pine on 8th August 1915, and a red flowering gum for Private Frank Lucas Bolitho who died of mastoid disease and meningitis on 26th May 1917 in hospital in England.

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