The Palm Beach Pavilion is to be renamed the Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Marks DSO, MC Pavilion in honour of one of the youngest commanders in the Australian forces during World War 1, under a Council proposal to go for community consultation in December.

The renaming is planned to coincide with the centenary commemoration of his death at Palm Beach on 25 January next year.

On that day 100 years ago, the young soldier aged just 24, while picnicking with his fiancé at Palm Beach, drowned in heavy surf trying to rescue a swimmer caught in a rip.

Mayor Michael Regan said the untimely death of Douglas Marks was one of the main factors that led to the formation of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club in November 1921.

“He was an amazing young man, who had achieved so much on the battlefield and who, in his prime, died during such a heroic act. Council proposes to install a memorial plaque on the Pavilion in memory of him.”

The proposal will be placed on public exhibition for two weeks in December.

“The naming of this building in honour of Lt. Cl. Douglas Marks, a hero for both our country and community, recognises and celebrates the heritage and history of this community including the origins of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club,” Mayor Regan said.

Lieutenant Colonel Marks served at Gallipoli in World War 1. In December 2017, at the age of 22, Marks was promoted to second-lieutenant and commander of his battalion and was decorated with a Military Cross (MC) and a Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

He returned to Australia and civilian life in late 1918 and commenced a promising corporate career with CSR, before his death in 1920.

Should the proposal to rename the pavilion be successful, it is planned a plaque in his honour will be in place on 25 January 2020 in time for the centenary commemoration.

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