William and Antje Sparrow and their daughter settled at Swan Reach in 1887 with three more sons, Stanley, Frederick and Rupert being born here. Rupert was born at Cunninghame in 1893 and had started his early school there before the family moved to Broken Hill. They were following the mining fields and after the birth of two more siblings, Florence and Albert, his mother died in 1909. Sole parent William shifted the six children to Western Australia. Rupert became a horse driver and when he was 22 years old he was the first son to enlist on 26 August 1914 with the 11 th  Battalion. His older brother Frederick enlisted a couple of weeks later and joined him at the Helena Vale Camp in Western Australia. On 2 November Rupert embarked on the Ascanius and joined the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli to participate in the landing. He was reported missing on 25 April. By the time the “missing in action” notification was sent to the family his father had also enlisted, putting has age down by almost ten years to be accepted, and his sister Florence received the news. One week later his brother Frederick would also be missing. It would be twelve months before Private Oden from New Zealand would state at a court of enquiry that on April 25 at Gallipoli on the day of the landing several men of his company whose names he cannot remember, said they had seen Sparrow hit whilst advancing. During the retirement one of them saw him lying dead with a wound in the head, he turned the body over and identified it as being that of Sparrow. When Rupert’s father landed at Gallipoli, no doubt he wold have hoped to see his sons. He did not know that Rupert and his brother Frederick had both died before he arrived. After his brothers deaths Stanley also enlisted in July 1915 and after four years in France, was discharged in London in 1919. Rupert’s body was not recovered and he is remembered at the Lone Pine memorial.   

103 Private Rupert James Sparrow – Swan Reach/Lakes Entrance Killed in Action 25 April 1915

….. father enlisted after brothers reported missing