Lest We Forget

From 1940 onwards there was an exodus of players from the ranks of football and East Perth provided its fair share – young men who enlisted for overseas or home service in the Army, Navy or Air Force.

The WAFL suspended league football from 1942-44, with an under-age competition taking the place of senior action.

The War meant that many young footballers were deprived of the best years of their life and, unfortunately, several paid the supreme sacrifice with their lives.

Club Historian Bill Forrest was looking through his papers and found some extracts from various letters from East Perth players serving in the army which were published in the Daily News of 1916. These letters add a new perspective to ANZAC day: 

Ben Wallish wrote: 

"I am sweet as a bun but I am sorry I cannot say the same of poor Hedley (Hedley Tompkins). He has suffered great pain since he got knocked poor little beggar. He has got a heart like a lion to have lived through it after all the agony and going through six operations. He has had the bad luck to lose his right foot. It had to be done to save his life. Things are pretty willing over here. I am not playing fullback over here. I am right forwad kicking goals a treat. We have got the Huns on the move and we are giving them no peace - crack,crack, all day until we crack them right up." 

Hedley Tompkins wrote: 

I got five wounds in the right leg, beginning from the ankle to the knee, five in the abdomen, two in the right arm and a bit of shrapnel in the left wrist. The leg was much the worst. Septic poison set in, and, although for about five weeks they had the leg in hot baths and syringed it twice a day, and also made incisions which meant five operations, and put in tubes to drain off the pus, it was no good. The pain was terrible, and the swelling was getting worse, so I told the doctor to go on with the business, with the result that I am minus a leg. It is amputated about a foot below the knee. Since having it done, my temperature has gone down, and I feel much better, and am going to England. They say they fix me up with a leg, which will do away with the crutch." 

Charles Burley wrote: 

"Ben Wallish told me that Hedley Tompkins had been wounded. Poor old Hedley......I suppose you know as much as we all know about the big push. Certainly we gave Fritz a bump, and we will have to keep bumping him if we want to get this game over. That means we want every man we can get hold of.......We are going to win, but the more men that come will make the game lighter for those that are here. So it's up to all who are fit. I am sure that if all did that, we would soon get it over. It's not kid; it's the dinkum truth." 

Charles Burley never made it home dying at age 29 whilst on service with a tunnelling company on 29 November 1917 leaving a wife. Charles had been a blacksmith's striker. 

Lastly Charlie McKenzie wrote: 

"We have been having a very rough time these last few weeks. The game is much rougher here than on a football field in the West, and as usual, I have had the misfortune to get knocked, though nothing serious..... I have been in the big push, and one has not the slightest idea what it is like unless he has been there and gone through it. I passed through a village which had been taken by our boys, and it looked like a rubbish heap. I don't suppose there was one whole brick in the heap, and the trees that surrounded the village looked like a lot of telegraph poles stuck up at random. So you can gather from that what the bombardment would have been like. ......... I inspected the crater of one of the mines laid by our fellows. It was about 270 feet across and over 70 feet deep. .... I was in one charge there, and I hope never to get in another like it. It was pitch dark, lighted up occasionally by flares and flashlights, with bullets, shells and bombs whistling and bursting all around you. Waiting for the word "Go" was the worst. A fellow felt any how, but once off, and everything was forgotten. I did not get too far, as I stopped one in the leg, and am now having a rest in one of the Canadian hospitals. I will soon be all right again and ready for another fly." 

Charlie McKenzie was a premiership player for East Perth. 

During 1995 the club’s Board of Directors agreed that the War years be included as part of a player's service, which meant some league footballers would qualify for Life Membership under the 10 years service clause.

Lest We Forget