Soldier/Settler Memorial in Griffith

[Ganmain Tony]

Something Ive been meaning to do for a while.

Thought you all might be interested in this. A very simple, but very touching memorial in the city of Griffith in the South/West of New South Wales. A lot of Australias returned soldiers were given blocks out here in the new Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) after the First World War. The Australian Government at the time saw irrigation farming out on this very flat country as Australias post war future.

My family on my mothers side were such people. Two of my great grandfathers (6th Light Horse) one great uncle (2nd AIF) and my grandfather (WW2).

I love this memorial because it, to me represents how they (the people) were. Not flash, just simple people who went and did what their country asked them to do. In war and also in civilian life.

Which may have been a harder task? Imagine coming back from the war only to be told youre being shoved out to the middle of nowhere to scorching hot scrub land & told you have to build a house and make a living in a profession you have never done before & have no clue how to go about it.

[Ganmain Tony]

The memorial also has an explanation of what its meant to depict.

I can almost see the dispair in the older mans eyes (the WW1 veteran) passing the Lee Enfield to his son freshly back from basic training. The old man probably thinking he had fought the worst war for nothing as he has had to see his son go off to war. Apart from the land almost breaking him through the depression and surviving in a subsistence living. To watch the rise of even nastier dictators wanting to impose their domination over the world.

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

WWI troops found in mass grave reburied in France
AP



By JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press Writer Jenny Barchfield, Associated Press Writer – 16 mins ago

FROMELLES, France – Royalty, governments and relatives on Monday honored Australian and British soldiers whose remains were discovered in mass graves on the 94th anniversary of the World War I battle of Fromelles in northern France.

Prince Charles, top Australian officials and families of some of the soldiers were to attend the ceremony, in which one soldier will be reburied, and which marks the end of more than two years of painstaking exhumation and identification work by archaeologists.

A coffin containing the remains of the last soldier was to be carried from the site of the mass graves in a World War I-era, horse-pulled wagon to a recently built cemetery nearby. Prince Charles will then dedicate the new Fromelles Military Cemetery.

An Australian amateur historian discovered the graves — which contain the largest group of Australian remains from World War I ever found — in a muddy field on the edge of a small wood in 2008, prompting an investigation by the Australian government.

Retired Australian banker Jim Parslow, 71, made the trip from Melbourne to honor his second cousin, William Moore, of the Australian infantry, who died at Fromelles at age 25. Parslow, an amateur genealogy buff, said Moore had been officially identified thanks to DNA provided by an unidentified family member.

"This represent closure for us. Finally, he's been identified and honored as someone who served his country," said Parslow, who added that Moore's brother was also killed in France in WWI. He said that Moore's death had long haunted the family.

"My father passed along all the information he had about him (Moore) before he died and I picked up where he left off," he said.

Riki Samuel, 59, a London-based communications companies owner, made the trip to honor his great-uncle Edward Samuel, who died at Fromelles at age 30. Edward Samuel was a Scotsman of Jewish faith who emigrated to Australia a few years before his death. He was known to have fallen at Fromelles, but his body has not been identified.

"This is one of the most important days for the Samuels family," said Riki, who was one of ten of Edward Samuels' relatives attending Monday's ceremony. "We're hoping he'll be identified during a second wave of testing later this year, but you never know. So many of them were blown to bits."

The remains appear to date from a ferocious night of fighting 90 years ago. Late on July 19, 1916, Australian forces launched the battle of Fromelles, the first Australian combat operation on the Western Front.

More than 5,500 Australians were killed, wounded or went missing at Fromelles in under 24 hours, along with more than 1,500 British, cut down by German machine guns and artillery. German troops buried them afterward, Australian investigators say. The site, near a pockmarked battlefield, was covered over time.

More than 23,000 Australian soldiers' bodies were never recovered for burial from World War I, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Only a single body was to be reburied Monday. The other 249 bodies were buried in the new Fromelles Military Cemetery in early 2010. Only 96 of the remains found have been identified by name, all Australians.

An additional 109 of the bodies were confirmed to have belonged to the Australian army, but not named. Three were confirmed to be British. The other 42 are classified as unknown, the organizers said.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Rest in peace brothers. I stood guard on the left foot of the Canadian Unknown Soldier when he was repatriated. It is the present's duty to honour the fallen, especially when so many have lain in unmarked graves for so long.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Ganmain Tony

Something Ive been meaning to do for a while.

Thought you all might be interested in this. A very simple, but very touching memorial in the city of Griffith in the South/West of New South Wales. A lot of Australias returned soldiers were given blocks out here in the new Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) after the First World War. The Australian Government at the time saw irrigation farming out on this very flat country as Australias post war future.

My family on my mothers side were such people. Two of my great grandfathers (6th Light Horse) one great uncle (2nd AIF) and my grandfather (WW2).

I love this memorial because it, to me represents how they (the people) were. Not flash, just simple people who went and did what their country asked them to do. In war and also in civilian life.

Which may have been a harder task? Imagine coming back from the war only to be told youre being shoved out to the middle of nowhere to scorching hot scrub land & told you have to build a house and make a living in a profession you have never done before & have no clue how to go about it.

They ( Govt. ) were desperate to settle some areas . So much so that non- soldiers were settled on blocks also . Many of the schemes were doomed becuase of a total lack of foresight by the beaurocrats . In the Mallee, just after WW1 , a typical settlers block was a square mile of semi-desert . My grandfather had one at Annuello , near Managatang. Lack of water always made it a tenous situation. We visited the old place in 1968.... talk about a god forsaken existence. Miles from nowhere , with horses for transport, attempting to grow wheat .
MIKE