October 4th, 2026Our past stories with Natalie Poole

As Remembrance Day draws closer next month, Natalie Poole brings us a story on just one of our many brave service people from over the years.

Trentham’s George Maidment Dight was born on May 5, 1872 in Fitzroy to Charles Pollard Dight and Margaret Ethel Dodd. He was one of 11 children.

He married Elizabeth Mary Ann Mancer in 1905 and together they had one child, Leslie, who died at three days old. No further children are recorded.

George Dight came to Trentham in 1906, and lived in the bush in Dight’s Lane, which was later renamed Blighs Road.

He was a builder with a business space in High Street, Trentham. He also did carpentry work, tinsmithing, painting and plumbing. In 1912, he changed occupations and became a selector (now referred to as a farmer), acquiring a plot of land for farming purposes. He was also a lay reader who could preach and conduct some religious services.

Church

George was commissioned by St George’s Anglican Church in Trentham between 1908 and 1921 and provided Sunday services in Barrys Reef and Newbury except for the years he went to war.

Early Sunday mornings, he would walk to Barrys Reef via Blackwood, where he would lead the congregation for worship and then leave and proceed to Newbury to repeat this process. He would return to Trentham late in the day at around 10pm having walked approximately 20km. This was a man dedicated to his faith.

Adversity struck George when his wife Elizabeth, having been in ill health for some time, died on October 7, 1914. The Kyneton Guardian newspaper, dated October 8, 1914 reported she left the house in a delirious state, wandering away and falling down a waterhole.

Finding love again

George found love again and remarried in early 1915 to May Elsie Miller and became a step-parent to her daughter Jean. The honeymoon period of marriage would be cut short when, aged 43, George enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on June 16, 1915.

World War I

George left Australia on board troop ship HMAT Anchises on August 26, 1915, ready to fight for his country in World War I.

The next two and a half years fighting for the homeland would be an extremely rough time. George’s army records see him entering the hospital on a few occasions during this time with a sprained ankle, hernia surgery and multiple gunshot wounds.

After being injured in the Somme, France on October 21, 1917 due to gunshot wounds to the back and buttocks, his road to recovery would be a long and enduring affair.

Now 45 and unable to serve on the front, George was repatriated home to Australia in early 1918, arriving back in the place he called home on April 13, 1918.

Welcome home

Returning home to Trentham and integrating back into the community would have been difficult but the “Welcome Home” socials were a way of thanking those who had served their country.

The Daylesford Advocate dated June 11, 1918 reads “Another Welcome Home Social was held in the Mechanics’ Hall, Trentham on the evening of the 8th inst, when the following soldiers, who had all been severely wounded whilst fighting at the front, were the guests: Privates John Ginnane, William Broad and George Dight. Speeches of welcome to the gallant lads were delivered. A splendid supper was served by the ladies. The singing of the National Anthem concluded a very happy evening.”

George was discharged from the AIF at Melbourne, deemed medically unfit.

A funny story…

George’s family recall him telling the (very) cheeky story of the Welcome Home Socials, with one of the leading ladies asking over supper if she could see his war wounds. George replied: “No, I am sorry Madam, I am sitting on them.”

Photos – Given by family members contacted through ancestry.com.au with history enthusiast Natalie Poole

August 1917 George and Elizabeth