Camden Cenotaph

General information

The Camden Cenotaph commemorates those who died in service or were killed in action in World Wars One and Two.
It was originally erected in 1922 to commemorate World War One. An additional plaque containing the names of eight soldiers who gave their lives was unveiled by Miss Macarthur Onslow on the 16th September 1922.
There never has been, and, probably never will be keener interest taken in any event in the district than that which was displayed last Saturday on that ideal spot of Macarthur Park, on which stands, full of dignity, Camden's Fallen Soldiers ' War Memorial. The occasion was the ceremony of unveiling the Cenotaph which has been erected by the people of the Camden district to perpetuate the memory of those brave local lads who left all that was near and dear to them to take their places among their comrades in the trenches on the frontages of the battlefields of Gallipoli, France, Belgium, Russia and Palestine, where they laid down their all: their young free and happy live (sic), that we may enjoy the freedom and liberty that is ours to-day. Beneath the folds of the grand old Union Jack, the emblem of the British Empire, we are the freest people on God's earth, and to those whose names appear on the panels of the monument we owe a debt of gratitude that can never be paid.
The history of the monument is perhaps well known to most people, who will readily recall that some months ago the site passed into the hands of the Camden Municipal Council as a gift from the Camden Park Estate, Ltd. The funds to provide for the erection were raised by voluntary subscriptions from the people of the Camden district.
Camden News (NSW), 16th February 1922.

" I unveil this plaque to perpetuate the memory of the brave men whose names appear thereon." They set higher store on glory than on life, and valued great deeds above the length of day." "Let us with bowed heads salute the sacred dead." With these few words, softly and feelingly expressed, Miss Macarthur Onslow unveiled the additional plaque containing the names of eight soldiers of the Camden district who gave their lives in the Great War, on the Camden and District's Fallen Soldiers Memorial at Macarthur Park last Saturday afternoon, in the presence of some 300 people who stood with bended heads in all solemnity. 
Camden News (NSW), 21 September 1922.