Help needed to identify SW soldiers

South West war historian Jeff Peirce is calling for the community to help identify 60 unknown Australian soldiers whose names are inscribed on the Yarloop War Memorial.

Mr Peirce, who is on a crusade to identify every South West soldier and nurse who enlisted in World War I, has been researching the names at the Yarloop site for the past five years.

The 69-year-old has already identified 198 of the 258 names on the memorial and is adamant on confirming the names of the remaining soldiers and nurses.

“It is hard and the frustration does get to me because I know somewhere there is a service record,” Mr Peirce said.

“In a way I feel like I am letting them down. I’m sure we will get them and I am not going to rest until we do.”

The military historian has been researching the names inscribed at all of the war memorials in the Bunbury-Wellington District since 2009.

He had been researching the Yarloop memorial “on and off” until January this year when he decided to ramp up his efforts just prior to the Waroona-Yarloop bushfire.

The philosophy to “identify, research, document and publish” has led Mr Peirce as far east as Noggerup to confirm the names of South West soldiers and nurses who were enlisted.

Mr Peirce said he had faced numerous hurdles while researching, including the misspelling and wrong initials of soldiers’ names at memorials.

He believes either of the two problems could be among the reasons he had not identified the remaining 60 names at the Yarloop memorial.

Mr Peirce urged people to contact him via peircefamily_aus@hotmail.com to view list of the unidentified names and to help provide any information.

“Any leads no matter how small or insignificant you think they might be will definitely help,” Mr Peirce said.

Mr Peirce also encouraged people to visit his website – www.anzacheroes.com.au – to view the list of enlisted soldiers who already have been confirmed from throughout the South West.