St Augustine's War Memorial Hall and Church Memorial Windows, Inverell

About

The memorial consists of a Parish Church Hall of brick construction built in 1961. The foundation stone was laid by the Lord Bishop of Armidale, The Right Reverend John S Moyes, on 18 March 1961. Situated next to the hall is St Augustine's Church, which contains several memorial stained glass windows in the nave dedicated to servicemen from the Second World War. The windows for R G L  Burtenshaw, R P Burtenshaw and R G Thomas were dedicated by Bishop Moyes, on Sunday 6 May 1951. The windows to A L Varley and R A Varley were dedicated by Bishop Moyes on 17 June 1951, as reported in the The Inverell Times, 18 June 1951.  Brigadier Varley was awarded the Military Cross, and was Mentioned in Despatches in the First World War, finishing with the rank of Staff Captain. During the Second World War, as Brigadier, he took a battalion overseas and later became a Brigade Commander. He was again Mentioned in Despatches and was reported missing after the sinking of a Japanese troop ship in September 1944. His son, the late Lieutenant Robert Ashton Varley, joined the service six months before the conclusion of the war. He became Reinforcements Officer to the 2nd 1st Battalion of the 6th Division and was killed in action in New Guinea in the late phase of the war. The first two memorial stained-glass windows in the church were designed by William Bustard, renowned painter, stained-glass artist and book illustrator (1894-1973) and were manufactured by R S Exton and Co, leadlight specialists originally based in Toowoomba, Queensland. Examples of Bustard's work exist throughout Queensland, with the most impressive memorial windows in the Catholic Cathedral, St Mary's Star of the Sea, Darwin, Northern Territory, to those who died in the Japanese air raid in 1942. Bustard served in the Second World War in the Royal Australian Air Force, camouflaging installations. The memorial windows are available for viewing during church services.

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