Lennie and Dorothy Bruton of State School no. 1876 in Lilydale, knitting to raise money for the War Relief Fund.

Almost as soon as war was declared, teachers began to enlist. A total of 753 Victorian teachers and Education Department staff enlisted in the armed services, including two female teachers who enlisted as nurses. Of these, 146 died serving their country.

One of those who enlisted was Private William James Gunn Murray. Born in 1896 in the small wheat-belt town of Warracknabeal, William Murray was a junior teacher at neighbouring Antwerp and later Horsham, where he was teaching at the time of his enlistment in January 1916. Records show that he was an earnest and diligent teacher.

Serving first in the 6th and then the 58th Battalion, he was twice mentioned in dispatches for bravery as a runner, delivering messages from the front line to headquarters. It was on one of these missions, on 26 March 1917 at Lagnicourt in France, that Private Murray was killed.

His name appears on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial with those of 11,000 other Australian soldiers whose remains were not found. Private Murray was one of three brothers who enlisted as soldiers. His brother Leslie was the only one to survive the war.

We see them go forth from home in the prime of their manhood, and then the dreaded news arrives that never more will they return to those waiting and watching for their return.

Hilda Murray, sister of the late Private William Murray, wrote this letter to Frank Tate, Director of Education, 6 August 1918.

Boys of Villers-Bretonneux preparing to lay a wreath at the Cross of Sacrifice.