Private John Charlton Boer War memorial window

John Charlton, of Castle Creek, Victoria had belonged to the Euroa Rifle Club before enlisting and departing for service in South Africa in 1901. Serving with the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles (5VMR), he engaged with Boer forces across southern Africa, including the disastrous battle of Wilmansrust, Transvaal, where a Boer surprise attack resulted in significant casualties to the contingent.

Charlton survived battle only to succumb to typhoid. He died, aged 23, on 16 August 1901 and is buried in Pretoria. In far off Castle Creek a well-attended memorial service for him was conducted by the Reverend FW Wray of St Paul’s Church, Euroa, who had recently returned from South Africa, where he too had suffered typhoid fever.

Wray led community fundraising for this commemorative window, which was installed in St Paul’s in 1903. It was designed and manufactured by Brooks, Robinson & Co, Melbourne, in a simple Art Nouveau style. The central motifs and the underlying quotation from the Bible evoke a Christian warrior.

The sword, a knightly weapon, represents the word of God, the helmet represents hope, while the shield symbolises the cross of sacrifice and the flames, purification. The window reflects community beliefs in service to God in a just cause that led Australians to fight during the Boer War and the First World War.

In 1928-29, this window was replaced with a newly designed one and it remained stored beneath the church floor until its rediscovery in the 1980s. The Charlton Memorial Window Committee rescued and restored the window to its former glory. In 2016 the window was accepted into the Shrine Collection.

The Shrine gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Copland Foundation towards the installation of this display.