Accidentally drowned 11/12/1943
This memorial overlooks the scene of probably the worst river tragedy on the Clarence River since Europeans arrived in 1838.
Late on the afternoon of Saturday December 11th 1943, thirteen members of the 1st Grafton Cub Pack drowned when their punt was swamped while returning from a break up picnic on Susan Island.
The thirteen wolf cubs – four from Grafton and nine from South Grafton were aged from eight to ten years, they were among a party of thirty one on the punt.
A colonial enquiry on February 1 and 2 1944, returned a finding of accidental drowning. This memorial was erected by the citizens of Grafton and District to mark the 50th anniversary of what the state commissioner for cubs described in 1943 as the worst tragedy in the history of the Boy Scouts in NSW.
itchingforhitching 
Tragedy indeed!
LikeLike
Heartbreaking isn’t it and made even more so at a time when so many of the town’s youth would have been away at war.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How awful, when they should have been returning home full of adventure stories to tell their families. I don’t know how families get through something like this, it must have hot te whole community very hard indeed. 💐
LikeLike
And war time too their losses with that would have been bad enough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So incredibly sad
LikeLiked by 1 person
So very sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Having almost drowned at 13 I understand how terrible it was for those kids. I lived but part of my need to sail comes from my fear of deep water that still haunts me today. Another thing I WILL overcome.
LikeLiked by 1 person