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Western Mail, Thursday, 5 September 1929, p. 2.
Service on Land and Sea.
Looming large in tho foreground of Mons Sunday and the British ex-servicemen's reunion in the following week was Mr. George E. Cattermole. George has had a varied career. He is now in his fifth year as vice president of the Perth branch of the R.S.L.. During that period he has inaugurated many moves for the benefit of soldiers and their dependants. For the good-will which exists between the digger and the Tommy in this State he is largely responsible. As founder and secretary of the British United Services' Association he has coordinated its activities so that both bodies get the maximum benefit of each other's existence. In view of the fact that in other Slates of the Commonwealth there is a distinct cleavage it can be acknowledged that Mr. Cattermole has performed in Western Australia a notable service in furthering the ideals of comradeship with which the British and the Australian soldier fought.
Mr. Cattermole enlisted in the navy in 1891, as a boy, on the Impregnable. Then followed service all over the world in ships which are household names even in Australia. The Thunderer, Pembroke, Rodney, Wildfire, Polyphemus and Renown are some in which he served as Ord. Seaman. A.B., Leading Seaman, and Petty Officer, purchasing his discharge in 1901. He fired his first gun, a smooth bore, round shot muzzle-loader on the sailing brig Pilot, outside Plymouth in 1892, and was one of the last of the British Navy to serve under canvas in a ship of war - the H.M.S. Cruiser, in 1896. In 1899 he was on the Cossack chasing gun runners and slavers in the Persian Gulf. He was also champion heavy gun shot on the East Indies station for two years.
After a few years in insurance work in the old country he joined up on the outbreak of war and as a non-commissioned officer in the 13th Essex Regiment, gave cheerful and gallant service. He won the Military Cross as Regimental Sergeant Major in a trench raid on Vimy Ridge and would have received a commission but for a wound he incurred in Delville Wood in 1916. A period in training camps followed convalescence and he was in an officers' training school when the armistice put an end to further promotion. Mr. Cattermole then accepted an appointment with the Imperial War Graves Commission and left France to come to Australia in 1924. He immediately linked up with Perth branch and has been a strenuous battler for the rights of the soldier ever since. As a leader in war time, he considers he would be disloyal to old comrades if he did not offer his services to them in times of peace. It is rather a pity that so many ex-soldiers of rank, from N.C.O up, in the A.I.F., are not imbued with the same admirable sentiment.