31/08/2016
A soldier from another recent Honour Board i am researching, Sutherlands Creek, Maude and She Oaks State School Honour Board. This soldier came from Modewarre.
Private Godfrey Deppeler:
Godfrey was born in 1893 in Meredith to parents Andrew Deppeler and Bertha Schefferle, his father and he ran Barton Hall Farm in the Sutherland's Creek district of Bannockburn. When the war broke out, Godfrey was working as a labourer, he enlisted in Melbourne on the 12th of July 1915. He was immediately attached to the 8th reinforcement of the 22nd Battalion, however on his arrival in Egypt he was posted to the 57th Battalion and then the very next day was transferred to the 5th Pioneer Battalion and allocated the service number 3497. Whilst serving at the Western Front, Godfrey's battalion was responsible for creating drainage and roads for the supply companies at the Western Front. Once shelling had ceased, the Pioneer Battalion continued to upkeep the barbed wire fencing and road surfacing. Godfrey's service was terminated due to the armistice being signed, and by the 8th of May 1919, he was on his way home.
Once he arrived home from the war, he continued his work as a labourer in Modewarre, and married Doris Batson in 1925, with whom he had 4 children. The family began farming in Mt Moriac in 1931 and moved to Winchelsea to farm, before Godfrey's death in Geelong in 1953.
