Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

William Richardson was born in Selby Yorkshire and immigrated to NZ with his parents sometime in the mid 1870's where he married Helen Jones in 1893. William and Helen Richardson and their eleven (11) children moved from Gisborne, NZ to Wooroolin in 1910. Their 12th child was born at Wooroolin in 1912. The family travelled on the SS Maheno across the Tasman Sea. In 1935 the Maheno was washed ashore at Fraser Island during a cyclone.
William & Helen Richardson bought portion 150v in the Parish of Wooroolin when they arrived from NZ in 1910. The farm remained in the family until very recently.
Two of their sons enlisted in the Australian Army during WW1. I have a wonderful photo of the Wooroolin Football Team taken in 1914 which includes the Richardson brothers as well as my Grandfather, Alf Jones.
In 2021 Elizabeth Caffrey spoke at the Wooroolin Anzac Day service. Her address included these words on the Richardson men. The Richardson brothers were just lads, young farmers from Wooroolin when they went off to war in 1915. Noble was 19 and Victor had just turned 18.

Richardson Noble William - 25th Battalion, A Company – SRN 215

Nobel Richardson was 14 years old when his family moved from New Zealand to Wooroolin in 1910. He worked on the family farm as well as labouring for others in the district.
On 26 Feb 1915 Nobel joined the Australian Army 25th Battalion, A Company at Wondai. Nobel embarked with his Unit from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on 29 June 1915.
Noble Richardson was 19 years and 5 months old when he enlisted. He stood 5 feet 8 ½ inches in his socks and had a fair complexion with sandy hair and blue eyes. His distinguishing features were that all his upper teeth missing – wore false teeth. He also had a large scar on lower part of left leg.
Nobel served 3 years Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front! One of the lucky ones to return home. Noble saw action in Gallipoli briefly before his transfer with the 26th Battalion to France, eventually promoted to Sergeant. He came home in 1919.
But I am loving his story in an Australian Newspaper about the Shooting down of the famous Red Baron. Thanks June Stebhens for this wonderful article.
“Mr Noble Richardson, then a Sergeant with A Compony, 25th Battalion, AIF was sitting outside the company cookhouse at Dermacourt on April 21 when his dinner was interrupted by the arrival of an enemy aircraft with decorated wings.
He writes “it was otherwise a quiet evening with no other plane in sight. I immediately he would get some nice photos for the Jerry artillery to use and blow us to bits the next morning.
Being in charge of the Lewis Guns I had them set up ready for night work. I grabbed a Lewis Gun and began shooting at him. He replied with great accuracy, snicking the ground all round me and getting a hit on my turntable. I had intended … it out with him but was getting no result until I remembered that we had received our first … of tracer bullets. Quickly I pulled the magazine off and was lucky enough to get a magazine loaded with tracers.
The first burst showed that at the height he had I had the wrong range and was shooting away behind him. I was able to put the next burst right into the plane as he flew overhead making the sparks fly. As he came back I got another burst into the plane. It seemed to stagger and right itself. It glided away not towards but right into our sector.
It took a semicircular course and followed a ridge right back, losing height all the way. It was getting very low before anyone fired at it.
A few seconds later a real machine gun bombardment set in from an area where other Australian troops were stationed. A gunner there was credited with him, but the medical report was that the Count was dead before reaching there.
Why has Mr Richardson left it so late to make his claim? He explained that the soldiers around him dived for cover when the attack started so they didn’t see anything. Furthermore at the time he didn’t have any idea who was flying the plane.
When the official reports of the Red Barons death was posted Mr Richardson unfamiliar with the name of the location where the plane crashed did not realise at first that it was nearby.
I did not put in a claim thinking it was too late but I have always been quite sure that my tracer bullets got him.
After the war he told a few people but nobody would believe him “You’d claim you did something and everyone would call you a liar. It was like that.”
So he forgot about it until last week….
Nobel returned to Wooroolin in Apr 1919 but moved to Stanthorpe about 4 years later then to Rockhampton area before eventually settling in Buderim in the 1950’s. He married Agnes Carter in 1944.
Nobel served in the VDC during WW11. He died in 1983 and is remembered at Buderim Lawn Crematorium and Memorial Gardens where Agnes joined him in 2001.

Richardson Victor Albert - 26th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement – SRN 2676

Victor was 12 years old when his family moved from New Zealand to Wooroolin in 1910. He also worked on the family farm as well as labouring for others in the district. He is included in the Wooroolin Football photo taken in 1914 and includes his brothers as well as my grandfather Alf Jones.
On 3 Aug 1916 18 year old Victor Richardson travelled to Brisbane and enlisted in the Australian Army with John Fay who worked on the Richardson farm.
Victor Richardson was 18 years and 1 months old when he enlisted. He stood 5 feet 7 ½ inches in his socks and had a fresh complexion with auburn hair and blue eyes. His distinguishing features was a large scar below left knee.
Victor embarked with his Unit from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A48 Seang Bee on 21 October 1915. Thanks to Elizabeth Caffrey we know that Victor was wounded in action at Pozieres and hospitalised suffering shellshock. Once again, historian Charles Bean, has the words, describing men in shellshock at Pozieres as... ‘driven stark raving mad… any amount of them could be seen crying… sobbing like children, their nerves completely gone…’
Those who suffered from severe ‘shell shock’ in WW1 were often shunned as shameful cowards lacking in moral fibre. Today we fully accept that service men and women returning from combat may experience post war traumatic stress and we help them to heal. Victor was sent back to that horrific battlefield where he was killed in action a few months later. He, too, has no known grave and is remembered on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial. He was only 19.
Lest We Forget