CHAPTER 15 | 1914–1918 – World War 1
Frank Osborn of Bundarra, later d’Arenberg, during Army Service (Back row, second from left). [d ’ Arenberg Collection]
Louis’s three brothers, all of whom served with the AIF, however, survived, as did Tom Mayfield Hardy, who served with the 9th Light Horse, Sidney Hill-Smith, who enlisted with the 3rd Light Horse, and Alan Robb Hickinbotham of the 108th Howitzer Battery. Frank Osborn of Bundarra Vineyards in McLaren Vale, who served with the 43rd Battalion, also returned to farming and grape growing. But Tom Hardy and Sid Hill-Smith would share a tragic fate many years later in the 1938 Kyeema air crash disaster. The second and third generations of German settlers in South Australia suffered too. The appalling losses created an air of resentment, suspicion, and anger in the community, leading to arrests and internment of people of German heritage. The policy of internship of enemy aliens and de-Germanisation reached into the heart of the Lutheran community in South Australia and elsewhere. Many of the affected families were third- or fourth-generation farmers or vignerons. All Lutheran schools, German clubs, and German-language newspapers were closed down for security reasons. The Tanunda Club in the Barossa, frequented by German vignerons, was one such example. The systematic dismantling of German culture and businesses, a policy pushed by Prime Minister Billy Hughes, aimed to eradicate German influences in trade throughout the empire. Political and spiritual leaders were rounded up, as well as honorary consuls, including the Barossa Valley’s Hugo Mücke, despite his son Francis Frederick, a surgeon, serving in the AIF at Gallipoli and France. Croatians in Western Australia were also interned during the war, including goldfield workers and market gardeners.
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