The day was July 5, 1917 and word had just reached town of the loss of 19 local men in the Battle of Messines a month earlier.

“It would have been a dark day for the town,” Inverell RSL Sub Branch secretary Graeme Clinch said.

“There was no emails or anything in those days. You had to wait for a ship to arrive to get the bad news. That’s how it was.”

“If you didn’t know them you would have been related,” added administration manager Tracey Collins, who said the population at the time was just around 5000 people.

On top of the 19 district men killed within the first 48 hours of the battle, another 28 were gassed or wounded. 

Now, 100 years on, the Sub Branch will join the Kurrajong Re-enactment Committee in commemorating the battle.

This Wednesday at 11am at the cenotaph on Evans Street, the town is invited to remember the soldiers killed and injured in Messines, many of whom still have families living in the area.

“When the Kurrajongs were formed originally, Inverell won the governor’s shield for having the most people per capita that joined up in the first World War,” Mr Clinch explained, adding that many of the lives lost came from the famous group.

When news finally reached town, flags were flown half mast.

“An all pervading gloom spread like a pall over the town,” Tamworth’s Daily Observer reported on July 7, 1917, adding that “everywhere little knots of people discussed, in subdued tones, the fateful news which had flashed across the wires throughout the day”. 

Local lives lost include William Henry Bacon, Reginald Bartley, Wilfred John Bucknell, William Buxton, Percy Cant, George Cawkwell, Arthur Raymond Ellis, John Edward Hobbs, James Archibald Lennard, Alan Mather, Henry Thomas O’Neill, Harry Squires, John Robert Worgan, Richard Thomas Bourne, Leslie Ernest Church, Sydney Colley, Albert Henry Cooper, Francis Norman Smith, Samuel Taylor Robertson and Walter John Morris.

The offensive to force German forces to withdraw from Vimy – Arras and capture the Messines ridge – the high ground south of Ypres – launched on June 7, 1917. Private Frank Turner of Inverell recorded the attack in his journal.

1917, June 6: Packed up everything ready to go over the top near Ploegsteert tomorrow morning.  German shelling. Big hessian factory burnt to the ground.

June 7: Still marching past 1875 farm and Ploegsteert road. Trenches battered. Germans sending tear gas shells over. Terrible marching through trenches with helmets on. Got to Le Houre Avenue at 20 to 3 am nearly done in. Zero time 3.10 am. Two mines go up, one either side of us. Largest ever exploded. At the same time our guns opened fire and formed terrible bombardment and barrage along German front for 9 miles. We hopped our parapet and take German 1 and 2 line trenches and dug in and consolidated our new position. We lost a few but the German losses were very heavy.​

June 8: Bombardment on both sides and continues like hell far into the night.

June 9: Bombardment as usual. We took up advanced position 250 yards. No Germans within 1000 yards. 

June 10: Waiting for counter attack which never came.

June 11: In Battle No 12 we lost 13 out of 25 men.