Avon Emile CostelloPrint Page

Plaque:
   Australian Red Cross
TO THE MEMORY OF
Avon Emile Costello 
        (nèe Allan)
Died on 16th March 1919
   aged 28 years,
Serving her country 
With Australian Red Cross
Laid to rest Cairo, Egypt

Plaque:
[ Photograph ]
Avon Emile Costello 
(nèe Allan)
20.9.1890 - 16.3.1919

“She had the smile that comforts sufferers, and the quiet voice and manner that soothe a racked frame to sleep.  Her name, I think, should be on a roll of honour in this church (Thane’s Creek Presbyterian Church).  I am sure the soldiers of Thane’s Creek will desire it, that her memory be kept green and children ask for the beautiful story in years to come”.

These words were used to describe Avon Emilie Costello at her memorial service in April 1919, and although the church has long gone, her memory will now live on in the Karara Hall.  That is significant, as it was to this district that Avon, born in 1890, the eldest of eight children of James and Mary Allan, moved in 1907, where the family owned the dairy farm and sheep property “Strathyre”.

                                   [ Brief History of Avon`s life]

With her husband by her side Avon died early on Sunday morning 16th March aged 28 years, and was laid to rest that very afternoon among the soldiers she had served so diligently in the Cairo New British Protestant Cemetery, later to be known as the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery in Egypt. Fittingly her headstone is inscribed
"Died serving her country with the Australian Red Cross."