Seymour Memorial Hospital GatesPrint Page

The gates to the Seymour Memorial Hospital were erected to commemorate those who served in World War One.

The gates were originally unveiled in November 1927 after ten years of planning.  The Gates were built by returned soldiers at a cost of £412 and list many of those from the district who served in World War One.  

The gates were moved in 1959 to the entrance of the new hospital, and then again in 1996 to their current location but over the years the Gates became badly degraded.  In 2004 the RSL refurbished the names on the granite pillars, in 2012 the Gates were refurbished and in 2013 the lights were replicated and fitted in time for the Anzac Day dawn service of that year.

SEYMOUR, Sunday. On Saturday the State Governor unveiled the memorial gates of the Soldiers' Hospital. Lord Somers arrived by train in the morning, and was taken for a motor trip into the highlands, rising to a height of 2000 feet, amidst scenery which the guest declared to be among the finest he had encountered in Australia. His Excellency was entertained at lunch by the shire president, (Cr. Tehan), and among those present were Messrs. R. Clarke, M.L.C., Mackrell, M.L.A., and Coyle, M.L.A. In response to the toast of his health, Lord Somers said that in the course of the many trips he had made into the farming districts he had experienced the utmost kindness on the part of shire presidents and others in taking him to see beauty spots, breeding farms and experimental plots, and going to infinite trouble to make his visits interesting and instructive. Sometimes he caught the impression from the faces of those who were showing him round that he was asking a lot of tom-fool questions, and often he got answers that were considered to be adapted to his mentality (Laughter). On the other hand, some people realised that he was a newcomer, who could not possibly know the conditions, and humored him accordingly. His questions might seem stupid and childish to men long settled in the country; but if he had to start at the bottom and work up he must seek the most elementary information. Everybody, however, said kind things to him, so much so that if he tried to live up to their high opinion he would go back with the mere contemplation of his own goodness. (Laughter)

On arrival at the Memorial Hospital Lord Somers was received by a guard of honor of the 20th Light Horse, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Crawford, a large, contingent of returned men, boy scouts and girl guides, and a crowd of over 1000 people. In dedicating the memorial to the 33 heroes who had made the supreme sacrifice and the 174 residents of the district who had served at the front, the Governor said we often heard of the ideal of an international brotherhood: but if the war was to achieve its lesson there was no need to reach for any exalted international aim. We might begin nearer home, and lay the foundations of an inter-State brotherhood, and from that proceed to the brotherhood of Empire amongst our own kith and kin.  People here could achieve Empire brotherhood by keeping their money in the country instead of sending it abroad, and people at home by asking for the fruits of Empire`s enterprise. He wanted to tell the diggers that the King was personally grateful for their sacrifice. He recognised the work the diggers had done, and that they, forming a small unit of the vast army, had gone a long way in bringing victory to the Empire. (Applause).
Age (Melbourne), 14 November 1927.

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