About this site

ECPerkins.com.au is a commemorative website to perpetuate the memory of Edward Claude Perkins.

My name is Chris Mundy and I created this site. I am related to Edward Claude Perkins through my Great Grandmother, Maude Theresa Burgh (Perkins), Claude’s eldest sister.

Image of EC Perkins eldest sister, Maude Perkins
Edward Claude Perkins’ eldest sister, Maude Burgh

Being Claude’s eldest sister, Maude was given the family history by her parents in perpetuity.

Please note that the content and the photographs are copyright.  Please ensure that you respect the rights of ownership of this content. If you would like to use any of this information please use the facility on the Contact Us page so we can assist you with your inquiry or research.

How this site came into existence

In the early 60’s I was young boy growing up in Parramatta, NSW, Australia. One day my father was showing us some of Uncle Claude’s medals. I remember him mentioning that these belonged to his grandmother’s younger brother. Dad had grown up with his grandparents from a very young age. When his grandparents passed away he became responsible for the estate.

As years passed by I tucked away the memory of those medals, vaguely remembering what I had seen. Over the years the memory became distant and that thought had become “I  had a relative who served in World War I”.

In the mid-80’s my wife and I moved to Canberra, ACT the capital of Australia. I initially worked in the tourism industry where I had the ability to familiarise myself with the Australian War Memorial on a regular basis. In that period of time, I spent a deal of time looking at the World War One displays.

In the mid-90’s, one of my close friends returned from serving with United Nations in Rwanda. We were sharing some ‘yarns’ about relatives who had served in the first and second world war. This led us both to a visit the Australian War Memorial where we commenced our detailed search for our relatives, in my case, Edward Claude Perkins.

I rang Dad and told him what I was doing. When the records arrived from the National Archives we headed off to Sydney, where it gave Dad and Mum the opportunity to see the information first hand. Everyone was thrilled reading the information. While reading the information, Mum slipped away and returned with an old tin.

We opened the tin and in that tin was an old envelope. There in that envelope were two of Claude’s medals, two photographs from the 20’s of the site of where he was buried in France, some patches and a portrait of Claude not long after enlisted in his uniform. I had forgotten about these key items. When I saw the items all the memories of what I had seen some 30 years before came rushing back.

Over the years I had presented Claude’s story to different community groups, but it wasn’t until I became involved with Web work that I had a channel to communicate and share this story with a wider audience.

I hope you enjoy this site and find it useful. Please don’t forget to read the page called the ‘help us find Claude’s lost Memorial Scroll and Plaque‘ found at this link. You may be able to help us.

To start reading Claude’s story, click this link here.

Enjoy!

Chris

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EC Perkins 4503, AIF