WOUNDED Gallipoli veteran George Pearson was lauded as a hero when he returned to Dandenong in October 1915.
Grainy photographs taken outside the Dandenong Town Hall in October 1915 captured an excited throng of townsfolk, including many children, dressed warmly in coats and hats, many of them holding umbrellas.
The focus of this patrotic outpouring was 25-year-old Private Pearson, the first local to return wounded from the Gallipoli front.
The young Keysborough grocer signed up for war on 18 August 1914, joining H Company of the 8th Battalion.
What happened to Private Pearson on the battlefield is not made clear on his service record.
However, in a report on his homecoming the Dandenong Advocate described him as “lame“ after being “wounded twice“.
The crowd gave Private Pearson “three hearty cheers“ when he appeared on stage outside the hall, which was drapped in British Union Jack flags.
The Reverend Buntine said he was pleased to welcome Private Pearson home, who was one of his congregation, and through his exploits at Gallipoli “had proved that he had come from good stock“.
“Private Pearson thanked them heartily for the sympathetic welcome given him, but said he had not done more than others – his duty,“ reported the newspaper.
According to the Advocate, Private Pearson had been one of the town’s best footballers of whom “fifteen had enlisted, and no doubt their training had enabled them to withstand the hardships of the campaign“.
