His mother was a tragic figure in her final years. An invalid, she suffered from cancer and had a leg amputated seven months before she died at just 39, on 28 December 1911, at Alexandria, Sydney. Enlisting as a 19-year-old on 14 September 1914 and signing his official documentation as (New South Wales Militia) as he had done for the past two years.He listed his eldest sister Lilian (Mrs Frederick Charles Williams) as his next-of-kin when he joined at Rosebery Park.

The examining medical officer who passed Carl Norden fit for active service was the renowned Doctor Spencer Smithson Dunn, a Veteran of the 4th Imperial Bushmen in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) in which he served as a surgeon.

Carl Norden was described as five feet, four inches (162.5 centimetres) tall, weighing eight stone, 10 pounds (55.3 kilograms), with chest measurements of 32” (81cm) and 33½” (85cm). In 1914, interestingly, recruits had to be a minimum 5’6” (167.6cm) tall with a chest measurement of at least 34” (86.3cm), yet Carl’s papers were marked “special duty” so that was that. He was off to war.

He had a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. Whilst there was not much of him, Carl “was known as a boxer”, The Gundagai Independent reminisced after his 1984 death. There was always plenty of fight in him and he would need every ounce of it when thrust into the deadly chaos of Gallipoli where 8,709 Australians lost their lives. Private Norden, Service Number 441, sailed on the 12,531-ton steamship HMAT Suevic A29 out of Sydney four days before Christmas in 1914. He was one of the 159-strong 2nd Light Horse Brigade, 6th Light Horse Regiment, “C” Squadron.

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Amongst the ranks were a dozen Riverina boys, including himself, with four from Ardlethan: Sergeant
Stuart Archibald Tooth, the Burns brothers Leslie and William, both privates, and Private Charles Clark.
They, as well as Private Francis Maitland Woods from Ariah Park, Corporal Allan Woodbain Stevens
(Coolamon), Private Sydney James Ellis (Parkes), Grenfell pair Private David George Hampton and
Private Arthur John Smith, Private Augustus William Roach (Ganmain) and Private Arthur James Stuart
(Galong) all lived to tell the tale.