Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021
The McSparron brothers, railway shunter Archibald Joseph and motor driver William George, were late additions to the Auburn War Memorial, being added shortly after unveiling day, 30 April 1922.
Both brothers were born in Londonderry, Ireland and, on enlistment, both nominated their father, George McSparron of Londonderry, Ireland, as their next-of-kin. Both soldiers made a relative in Ireland the beneficiary of their wills.
The younger brother, Private William George McSparro, 24, was one of the earliest Auburn Memorial men to enlist, signing the oath on 22 August 1914. He sailed for Egypt on the Suffolk, one of the ships in the first convoy of the AIF that departed Albany in Western Australia in November 1914. The record is not clear but after hospitalisation in Alexandria, Private McSparron appears to have arrived on the Gallipoli Peninsular in June 1915. He was killed in action two months later during the battle of Lone Pine. He was buried in the Lone Pine Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsular.
William died just eight days before his older brother, Private Archibald Joseph McSparron, 26, arrived on the battlefield. Archibald, who had enlisted in February 1915, was on Gallipoli for 10 days before being wounded and invalided to England. After recovering in the Military Hospital in Bethnal Green, Archibald was returned to Egypt. He was taken on strength of the 18th Battalion and moved with them to the Western Front via Marseilles. He was on the front for five months before he died of wounds in August 1916, during the first battle of the Somme.
Of the 23 Auburn Memorial men killed in this early stage of the Battle of the Somme, only eight have a known grave. Three of them, Private Archibald McSparron, Private George Grainger, and Private Clyde Davis lie in the Puchevillers British Cemetery located in the AIF’s allocated area immediately west of the battle-gateway town of Albert.
In the service files of both McSparron brothers there are no connections with Auburn or Parramatta. We can only surmise that the brothers worked or lived in Auburn after migrating from Ireland and someone in the community belatedly put their names forward to the Auburn Memorial committee.
Archibald McSparron is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- NSW Government Railways and Tramways First World War Honour Roll, Central Station
- Parramatta and District Great War Roll of Honour
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- Victory Medal
- British War Medal 1914-20
- 1914-1915 Star
