The start of World War I once again led to many men from Wagga Wagga and the surrounding area volunteering to serve King and country. The town was the starting point of the "Kangaroo March", one of a series of snowball marches conducted in New South Wales during the war where groups of recruits would march toward Sydney and appeal to men in the towns along the route to join them and enlist in the Australian Imperial Force. 88 recruits left Wagga Wagga on 1 December 1915, farewelled by a large crowd and to the accompaniment of a band. The marchers included John Ryan, who later won the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of the Hindenburg Line in 1918. Along the way, the march stopped in towns such as Junee, Cootamundra, Murrumburrah and Yass and finished at Campbelltown with over 220 recruits. The local Rugby league football team, Wagga Kangaroos, chose its name in commemoration of the march. The two bitter conscription referendum debates in 1916 and 1917 exposed deep divisions in Wagga Wagga society with the respectable and mostly Protestant farmers, graziers, businessmen, and professionals generally in favour of conscription while the anti-conscriptionist tended to be Catholic and working class. Both referendums were narrowly defeated nationally, with Wagga Wagga voting for conscription in 1916 and against in 1917.