Freestone Memorial Hall Honour Roll 1919

A digitised honour roll painting listing men from Freestone, via Warwick, Queensland who enlisted in the First World War. The physical item is framed and hangs in the Freestone Memorial Hall. Text on the honour roll reads 'Heroes who have enlisted from Freestone for King and country from Aug '4' 14 to July 1919', and a large inset photograph features Indigenous soldier Walter E. Smale, aged 19 from Upper Freestone, 2nd Light Horse Regiment 3rd Reinforcement, who was killed at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915. Names listed are: Reg. Tucker, Bert Tucker, Tom. Matthews, Roy Hall, A.E. Hall, H.V. Petersen, W. Petersen, A. Petersen, J. Mooney, W. Hall, M. Douglas, Neils Lonn, J.A. Petersen, P. McDonald, W.T. Phillips, Fred. F. Phillips, Fred. Drury, L.J. Gellispie, C.S. Duncan, Hal. Hall, W. O'Grady, Hans Roth, J. Doran, T. McMahon, B. Petersen, J.J. Farrell, Otto Munchow. Artist and teacher Charles Ernest Astley (1869-1929) was a significant cultural figure in Toowoomba and Warwick in the early 20th century. Born in Kent, he studied at the Goldsmiths Institute, London, came to Australia in 1887-88 and lived in rural New South Wales and Hobart, where he painted and performed as a violinist in the Hobart Philharmonic Society. He moved to Toowoomba around 1902, became art instructor at the Toowoomba Technical College, and was instrumental in organising the first art show for the Austral Association in Toowoomba in 1903. He settled in Warwick and became art master at the Warwick Technical College and High School. Student exhibitions included stencilled curtains, woodcarving, modelling, painting and drawings. About 1920 he began to teach china painting and pottery.