This town ( pop.897) is a major centre on the Great Southern Highway 209kms. S/East of Perth,it administers an area of 1618sq.kms..The main industry of the town is providing Government services and catering for the needs of the surrounding farms. Situated in War Memorial Park on the corner of Glyde and Fortune Sts.,a field gun is located on either side of the Memorial.the gun on the left is of particular interest being a muzzle loader with open front and back sights and a worm screw attached to the rear of the barrel and passing through a threaded chassis cross member for elevation purposes.The barrel bears the Royal VR Insignia and was given to the Town of Narrogin in 1913 originally being installed outside the Town Hall,guns of this type were on issue in W.A.to No.1 Battery and the Fremantle Artillery Volunteers in the 1800s so the piece could have come from either of these units,rumour has it that it was used in the Boer War.This memorial (designed by Mr.G.G.Lavater,who also designed the Town Hall) is in the form of a Greek temple with entrance at both ends;the foundation stone was laid by Lt.Col.Olden D.S.O.(famed for leading the 10th.Light Horse in the capture of Damacus in October 1918) on Anzac Day April 25th.,1922,in addition to laying the foundation stone Lt.Col.Olden also presented Victory Medals to a large number of ex Servicemen.On Anzac Day 1923 the Memorial was unveiled and dedicated in a ceremony presided over by Lt.Col.J.H.Nicholson D.S.O. V.D., representing the Govenor of W.A.,the total cost came to threehundred&twentyfive pounds. Inside the building above the columns is a frieze inscribed with the names of the major WW1 battles;in the centre of the floor is a square column some three feet in height which,on the sides facing the two entrances are plaques in remembrance of the men who died}{ in the 1914-18 War,they carry eightyeight names On the south side of this column is a plaque in remembrance of those who died in the 1939-45 War and contains thirtysix names.Originally,the dead of the 1914-18 War were commemorated by brass name plates attached to two Jarrah boards and mounted under glass and sited on the outer wall each side of the Eastern entrance however,by 1937,these boards had become dilapidated so the Council provided eighteen pounds to the RSL to provide an alternative,this resulted in the column described above which was unveiled Anzac Day,1938,the plaque recording casualties of the 1939-45 War was added in 1953.Since 1949 the Memorial and surrounding area has been under the wardenship of the RSL with a small annual grant from the Narrogin Council.In 1950,to provide for maintenance and additions, a War Memorial Appeal was launched and some of the money thus obtained used to commemorate World War 2 by the addition of the Air Force memorial and a Naval memorial. In 1973 the RSL War Memorial Trust Fund was wound up and the sum of sevenhundred&sixty pounds handed to the Council for a memorial to the fallen of World War 2,Korea,Malaysia and Vietnam. this resulted in a barbecue area being established in the Western part of the Park.In addition to this Memorial a building the'Soldiers Memorial Institute' was constructed by the ex-servicemen themselves and opened in 1925,it stands in Egerton Street. (many of these details supplied courtesy Maurie White of Narrogin)

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