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WWI: Mementoes of our Grandfathers

A blog over 52 weeks dedicated to my two grandfathers who both served in WWI. It commenced on 29 January 2017.

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A Remarkable WWI Story:  Week Forty Four

26/11/2017

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In 2012 during a visit to Sydney Olympic Park to see the Olympic torch alight in Cathy Freeman Park, I was asked to take a photo of a man in front of the flame with his phone.  We got to talking and Andy told me he had been a volunteer at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  He worked nearby for an energy company and had come to see the flame just as I had.  That man was Andy Magro.

When I mentioned we were moving our head office from Garden Island navy base to Olympic Park Andy told me his brother had worked on Garden Island.  Over a coffee I told Andy about my about my WWI centenary project and then he told me an extraordinary story.  This is that story.

Some 20 years earlier, while at an elderly customer’s home in Eastwood to convert his old cooker to natural gas, Andy saw a WWI framed certificate in the hallway.  As Andy had an interest in military history he asked the old man about it.  Afterwards Andy was invited to stay for a cuppa.  Sensing the elderly gentleman was lonely Andy agreed, even though company policy forbade it.  The old man was a WWI veteran and had been keeping a secret from the war all his life, and now that he was in his last years, felt the need to unburden to someone and share his secret before going to his grave.

Andy couldn’t remember the old man’s name so let’s call him Private X. 
“X” had been stationed in Belgium with his AIF battalion towards the end of WWI.  He told Andy that a young Belgian boy had taken to visiting the Australian soldiers’ camp because he liked their horses.  The boy was quite young, only about six years old.  One day after going home to his village the nameless boy returned to the soldiers in a very distressed state.  His village was gone.  He couldn’t find his home.  The entire village had been blown up by the Germans!

Being in a war zone, and not knowing what to do with the boy, they kept him in their camp and fed him and taught him to help look after the horses.  With his whole family gone, and knowing he would likely end up in some orphanage, the young soldiers really felt for the boy and didn’t want to abandon him to such a terrible fate.  Knowing they were doing the wrong thing, when orders came from above to break camp the young Aussies dressed the boy in cast off uniforms and smuggled him onto a ship home to Australia in one of their canvas haversacks.

On the long voyage home the young soldiers vied for the right to take the boy to their home and raise him as their own child by tossing coins, heads or tails.  All the diggers wanted the boy but in the end he went home with a soldier from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.  All of them vowed never to tell as they knew they would have been severely reprimanded or possibly even court martialled for their actions.

Andy said the old man was so relieved to finally tell someone, and that he could now rest peacefully knowing the story was off his chest.  Given that Kalgoorlie in the early 20th century was probably not a huge town, it would be fascinating to try and find out the name of the soldier who raised the young boy.  Given the scale of human tragedy in WWI it seems there was a good outcome for one young Belgian boy!

Andy’s own grandfather, Thomas Hamilton Brown, also served in WWI.  He enlisted as an 18 year old in 1918 and served in Belgium.  Andy’s mother always told him that his grandfather dug lots of holes.  Andy remembers that his grandfather never talked very much and died in 1969.  While researching his grandfather’s service record he discovered that young Thomas was in the Graves Regiment and had the grisly task of digging graves for all the dead on the Western Front in Belgium.

Andy is Treasurer of the Maltese ex-Servicemen’s Association of NSW and is working on research into the history of 53 Maltese Anzacs who migrated to Australia and then served in WWI.
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War Memorials:   Week Forty Three

18/11/2017

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Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium where the Last Post Ceremony is conducted every night of the year since 1927
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The Sacrifice sculpture in the Hall of Silence, Anzac Memorial Hyde Park
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Shrine of Remembrance Melbourne in King's Domain on St Kilda Road
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Shrine of Remembrance Brisbane in Anzac Square
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Here is their spirit, in the heart of the land they loved; and here we guard the record which they themselves made. - Charles Bean, 1948

When the real battlefield horrors and death and casualty tolls became known at home the Australian people needed and wanted a physical place to pay their respects to their loved ones.  Governments and councils too recognised how important it would be to set in stone fitting memorials to those who paid the highest sacrifice.

This year, as part of my WWI project, I have visited WWI memorials in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Ypres in Belgium. 

Ypres:  Not only in Australia were magnificient architectural forms designed and built, but also in Ypres Belgium where the worst of the battlefield tolls occurred.  The Menin Gate, or Menenpoort in Flemish, a Memorial to the Missing was built over the main eastern entrance to the town.

Its large Hall of Memory contains the names of 54,395 Commonwealth soldiers who died but whose bodies have never been identified or found.  The memorial was too small to contain all the names as originally planned.  Those missing after 15 August 1917, had their names inscribed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing instead - 34,984.  Since it’s unveiling on 24 July 1927, the Last Post Ceremony has been conducted at the Menin Gate every night of the year, rain, hail or shine (except for short period of WWII).  The town of Ypres pays its respect and will never forget what occurred on the surrounding battlefields.

On 13 October I attended the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate and placed a poppy for my grandfather who survived his wounding one years before on 12 October 1917.

Sydney:  In Hyde Park stands New South Wales’ principal commemorative monument, the Anzac Memorial with its Pool of Reflection stretching towards Park Street on the northern side.  Artist, George Rayner Hoff, an English sculptor who served in the Royal Engineers as a map maker in France during WWI, and migrated to Sydney in the 1920s, collaborated with Australian architect Charles Bruce Dellit on the Anzac Memorial.

Fundraising for the Anzac Memorial started on 25 April 1916, and it was officially opened on 24 November 1934 by His Royal Highness Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.  It is the focal point of commemorative services on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day and other important occasions.

At the heart of the memorial is the sculpture ‘Sacrifice’ depicting a slain warrior being carried home on his shield by his mother, sister and wife nursing his infant child.  Designed by Rayner Hoff the sculpture is based on the story of a Spartan warrior from ancient Greece.  Sacrifice is located in the Hall of Silence, and according to the memorial’s website "so that all who enter the Hall of Memory must gaze down upon it, thereby making physical and mental acknowledgement of the spirit which it symbolises..."

If you wish to read more about the sculptor and his war service here is a link to an article written by Brad Manera, the Senior Curator and Historian at the Anzac Memorial:  http://www.anzacmemorial.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/Rayner%20Hoff%20article%20for%20web.pdf

Melbourne:  In the Kings Domain, on St Kilda Road and in line with Swanston Street, lies the Shrine of Remembrance, created to meet the needs of a grieving community.  Of 114,000 Victorians who enlisted in WWI, 89,000 served abroad and 19,000 were killed and buried in distant graves far from home.    Originally dedicated to the memory of the men and women of Victoria who gave their lives in WWI it now also honours all Australians who serve in a war.

After running a competition, the Shrine was designed by winning architects Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, both veterans of WWI.  It was officially opened on 11 November 1934 by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, son of King George V, witnessed by a crowd of 300,000.

The original design consisted only of the central sanctuary surrounded by the ambulatory.  Within the sanctuary lies the marble Stone of Remembrance, upon which is engraved the words "Greater love hath no man".  Once a year, on 11 November at 11am a ray of sunlight shines through an aperture in the roof to light up the word "Love" in the inscription.  Beneath the sanctuary lies the crypt, which contains a bronze statue of a soldier father and son, and panels listing every unit of the Australian Imperial Force.

Enclosed in locked glass cases in a corridor surrounding the sanctuary are the Books of Remembrance.  Inscribed by eight calligraphers, the books contain the names of 89,100 Victorian members of the Australian Imperial Force, the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force who were either born or enlisted in Victoria and served overseas in World War I, or died in camp prior to embarkation.   In March I viewed the name of Private Athol Thomas Robinson an original Anzac.  I was also able to pin a poppy for my grandfather John Mitchell for his WWII service and print out a certificate of his service.

Brisbane:  The Shrine of Remembrance is located in ANZAC Square, between Ann and Adelaide Streets, perpetuating the memory of nearly 60,000 Queensland men and women who served in WWI.

The Memorial, 10 metres in diameter, consists of a Grecian Doric circular colonnade of 18 columns which represent the year of peace - 1918.  Inscribed within the top coping are the names of the battles in which Australian units figured prominently, included are Pozieres, Bullecourt, Messines, Ypres and Amiens.  Within the enclosure, a bronze urn is centrally placed, emitting a continuous flame, 'The Eternal Flame of Remembrance', symbolic of the faith of the nation's gratitude.

Funds were raised by public subscription for a memorial to fallen soldiers in World War I and in 1928 a competition was held for its design. The competition was won by Sydney architects Buchanan and Cowper who proposed a Greek Revival structure.  The Shrine took two years to build and was dedicated on Armistice Day 11 November 1930 by Governor John Goodwin.

There is a crypt in the lower section of the Shrine of Remembrance which contains the World War I and World War II Shrine of Memories, which contains memorial plaques to numerous Australian regiments who fought during these campaigns.  I visited the Brisbane Shrine in July.

Canberra:  Standing prominently on a hilltop at the top of Anzac Parade in Canberra, lies the Australian War Memorial.  WWI official war correspondent and historian Charles Bean resolved at Pozières in 1916 that those men and their ordeal would not be forgotten. 

Charles Bean went ashore during the landing on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and for the rest of the war followed the movements and battles of Australian soldiers on the Western Front.  He was at the Battle of Passchendaele when my grandfather was wounded on 12 October 1917.

In 1918 Charles Bean wrote “on some hill-top – still, beautiful, gleaming white and silent, a building of three parts, a centre and two wings. The centre will hold the great national relics of the AIF. One wing will be a gallery – holding the pictures that our artists painted and drew actually on the scene and amongst the events themselves. The other wing will be a library to contain the written official records of every unit.”

Bean was also appointed to oversee the production of the 12 volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 and he wrote six of the volumes, completing the last in 1942.

The Australian War Memorial combines a shrine, a world-class museum, and an extensive archive - from a vast national collection of war relics, official and private records, art, photographs, film, and sound are employed to relate the story of the Australian nation's experience in world wars, regional conflicts, and international peacekeeping.

The Memorial commemorates the Australia’s tribute to the sacrifice of more than 102,000 Australian men and women who died serving their country.  A central Commemorative Area flanked by arched cloisters houses the names of the fallen on the bronze panels of the Roll of Honour. At the head of the Pool of Reflection, beyond the Flame of Remembrance, stands the towering Hall of Memory, with its interior wall and high dome clad in a six-million-piece mosaic and illuminated by striking stained-glass windows.  Inside lies the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier, a symbolic national shrine.

John Treloar (1894–1952) contributed more than any other person to the realisation of Bean's vision.  Treloar, who came from Melbourne, also landed on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.  In 1917, as a captain, he was appointed to head the newly created Australian War Records Section (AWRS) in London, responsible for collecting records and relics for the future museum and to help the official historian in his work.  After the war Treloar devoted his life to the Memorial, and influenced almost every aspect of its development.

In April I placed poppies for Frank Uther and Gordon Arthvael Uther against their names on the Roll of Honour, and more recently on 26 October I placed a wreath for Frank Uther during the Last Post ceremony.


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Remembrance Day:  11 November Week Forty Two

11/11/2017

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In March 2015 the QE11 was docked in Sydney before heading for Anzac Cove at Gallipoli for the centenary of that battle.  The ship had partnered with Legacy and people were encouraged to come and place a poppy on the dock and write messages for their loved ones.  I was there assisting Legacy.  This young family were some of the people who came to place a poppy.  The poppies collected were later released by the QE11 over the waters of Anzac Cove. 

After all the horror, and the mud, and the blood of those terrible battlefields on the Western Front….in Flanders fields in Belgium and in Northern France there sprang the first sign of new life…blood red poppies… on those killing fields that claimed so many young men from both sides of the Great War to end all wars.

The soldiers said the vivid red of the poppy came from the blood of their mates soaking the ground.   It has since been adopted as the symbol of remembrance and is worn each year on the anniversary of Armistice Day – at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month – when a minute’s silence is observed to mark the cessation of all hostilities on the Western Front and in memory of the service and sacrifice of others.

During the Second Battle for Ypres, in 1915, a young Canadian was killed on 2 May and his friend Major John McRae, a Canadian military doctor and artillery commander, was called on to conduct the service for his mate, 22 year old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer.  The sight of poppies on the battlefield at Ypres that spring in 1915  are said to have inspired him later that night to start his draft of his now famous ode to the fallen – In Flanders Fields.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.  Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The poem was first published on December 8 of that year in the London based magazine, Punch.  To this day, the poem remains one of the most memorable war poems ever written.  It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battles of the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915.

Throughout these centenary years of World War One the poppy has become a major symbol.  For example the 5000 Poppies Project started from humble beginnings by two Melbourne women who wanted to crochet 120 poppies to remember their fathers who served in WWII.  It ignited a passion right across Australia and in fact has become an international tribute to the fallen.

To date over 300,000 handcrafted poppies have been contributed from all over the world and they have been on display in Melbourne and in England at the Chelsea Flower Show.  By chance I ran into some women who had been conducting a test with a few hundred of the poppies outside the Australian War Memorial.  They had “planted” the poppies overnight to see how they stood up to the storms and the kangaroos – in preparation for the centenary of Armistice Day next year – where they will be on display for several weeks.  You can read all about the remarkable story of the 5000 Poppies Project here:  https://5000poppies.wordpress.com/about/

Today in Melbourne at the Shrine of Remembrance thousands of the poppies are once again on display on the slopes surrounding the memorial and the carpet of poppies sown together line the entrance in readiness for the special ceremony this morning.

Every year the RSL holds their Poppy Appeal which contributes significantly to their fundraising work.  The largest fundraising activity of the Appeal is the sale of poppies beginning in late October each year.  Poppies are available in various denominations from $1 to $50 and the money raised is used to assist both current and former serving members of the Australian and Allied defence forces and their dependents when in need.  The RSL encourages all Australians to purchase a poppy and 'Remember in November.'
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Remembering Frank Uther:  Week Forty One

5/11/2017

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I first met Michelle Patient in 2004 whilst she was giving a talk about the Uther family at the Royal Historical Society.  Along with many others present that evening I was trying to find out how the Uther family were linked with mine.  It turns out my great great great grandmother Louisa was a Uther before she married into the Hobson family.  Michelle and I went on to help organise the Bicentennial Uther Family Reunion in 2007 – two hundred years since the first Uther came to Australia.

It was fitting then that Frank Uther’s Memorial Plaque was handed back to Michelle’s mother Erica when it was discovered by accident in a suburban back yard in 2014.  This is that remarkable story.

Stephen Byrnes was digging in his Denistone backyard when he found an unusual round WWI plaque, also known as a dead man’s penny – so called because one was given to the family of every Commonwealth WWI soldier killed during the Great War, with the soldier’s name inscribed on it.  Stephen had found Frank Uther’s dead man’s penny.

After contacting the Ryde Historical Society who in turn contacted Ancestry.com.au they found Michelle and her mother Erica.  Erica’s mother Ada was a first cousin of Frank’s.  The family had no photos or memorabilia of the Uthers after a robbery some years before when their house was ransacked.
On 18 October 2014, the anniversary of Frank’s death in 1917 on the WWI battlefield at Passchendaele in Belgium, Stephen handed back Frank’s memorial plaque to an emotional family.  It was also Erica’s 86th birthday. 
I was present that day.

Frank had enlisted in the AIF on 23 December 1915, service number 18754.  He was an accountant living in Homebush.  He was 24 at the time of enlistment.  Young Frank was a gunner with the 26th Battery, 7th Brigade, Australian Field Artillery.  Just two short years later Frank along with so many others was dead.

He and my grandfather Harold were cousins of a sort by marriage, and both fought on the battlefields of Passchendaele and were wounded on 12 October, the first day of that battle.  Frank is buried in the Ypres Reservoir North Cemetery.  I have just come back from Ypres but didn’t know where Frank’s grave was.  I did however place a poppy in his memory in Zonnebeke at the Passchendaele Museum, and at the Memorial Wall at the Australian War Memorial in April, and laid a wreath for him at the Last Post ceremony there on Friday 27 October. 

The British government issued memorial plaques after the First World War to the next-of-kin of all British and Empire service personnel who were killed as a result of the war.

The plaques were made of bronze, and were popularly known as the “Dead Man’s Penny” because of the similarity in appearance to the somewhat small penny coin.   One million, three hundred and fifty five thousand plaques were issued, using a total of 450 tonnes of bronze.  They continued to be issued into the 1930s to commemorate people who died as a consequence of the war.

Note:  Frank's name will appear on the exterior of the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial on the following dates:  Wed 27 December 2017 4.16am, Wed 28 February 2018 5.15am, Sat 21 April 2018 2.02am and Mon 4 June 2018 10.45pm.

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The scratches on Frank Uther's Memorial Plaque were made by Stephen Byrnes' spade while digging in his back garden.
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    I am a social documentary photographer & the family historian. I like to share visual stories.

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