Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
Peter Laurence Myers 20, labourer and ex-pupil of Auburn North Public School, enlisted on 30 August 1915. On 8 March 1916, Private Myers embarked on the Star of England after an unusually long time of six months in Australian training camps. Also on board were three other Auburn Memorial men: labourer Herbert (AH) Creagh, grocer assistant Henry Hodgkinson, and railway carriage builder Fredrick John Webber, a son of Ambrose Webber who was an alderman on Auburn Council.
Arriving in Egypt in April 1916, all four Auburn men were posted to battalions in the 5th Australian Division. They moved off with the rest of the division to the Western Front disembarking in Marseilles on 29 June 1916.
Less than 10 days after arriving in the Nursery Sector in the north of France, Private Myers was killed in the disastrous feint at Fromelles, 19-20 July 1916. Myers was one of five Auburn Memorial men killed in the one-day battle at Fromelles. The bodies of three of these Auburn Memorial men, including Myers, were not found immediately. The names of these three were inscribed on the wall of the VC Corner Cemetery, the only all-Australian military cemetery in France.
See: 'Three Auburn Boys Killed', The Cumberland Argus & Fruitgrowers Advocate, Saturday, 19 August 1916, p6.
Through the Red Cross, the Germans sent back the identity disc of Peter Myers. It had been picked up on the battlefield by a German soldier. The disc was forwarded to Myers' father who lived on Parramatta Road, Lidcombe.
Peter Myers is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn North Public School Great War Roll of Honor
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
