As the bugle sounds the Last Post at the ANZAC Commemoration on the Western Front in France next year, students from the SCOTS PGC College, Warwick will be honouring relatives who paid the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefields on which they stand.
Principal Michael Harding announced that current students from the College Choir and Pipes and Drums would be performing at the service and for some, the emotional experience of knowing that their relatives are among those laid to rest at the site will be overwhelming.
The SCOTS PGC College has been selected by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs to provide musical support for the Dawn Service on ANZAC Day, 2013.
The students will provide the musical support for the service and the one-hour commemoration will be televised in Australia on the ABC.
They will also be performing at the daily commemoration at the Arce de Triumph in Paris and at the Menin Gate Commemoration in Brussells.
Mr Harding said the students will be representing the college, the Southern Downs region and ultimately, Australia, at these events.
“The college has a deep tradition of the ANZAC spirit and have been holding a dawn service in the college grounds for many years, but this trip will help some members of the party who have family links with the ANZAC legend,” he said.
“This link with relatives is most important to young people as they become increasingly aware of the tremendous sacrifice of the Australians in World War I.
“Over 49,000 young Australians made the supreme sacrifice and this trip will be a wonderful opportunity for the college, through these young people, to honour these men where they fell and who will never return home.
“The party will be performing at various ANZAC services in the week leading up to ANZAC Day where they will perform at Villers-Bretonneux, and later visit the grave sites of family members,” Mr Harding said.
The Peterson Family
Fraser Petersen, a Year 8 student from Old Koreelah, has four relatives who are buried in these World War I battlefields, and he will attempt to find each one to lay flowers on their graves. Sadly, three of the four died in the space of two days.
One relative, Sapper Joshua Charles Gross, a school teacher from Summer Hill in New South Wales, was killed at Bellicourt near the Hindenberg Line on September 29, 1918, and is buried at Bellicourt British Cemetery.
Another relative, Private Francis O’Brien of Warialda, New South Wales, also died on September 29, 1918.
He departed Australia on January 2, 1917, with the 34th Battalion, 7th Reinforcement (Infantry), and at the age of 23 died in the battle for St Quentin Canal. He lies buried in the Unicorn Cemetery, Vend’huile, France.
His uncle, Edmund Elias O’Brien, was killed the next day, September 30, at Navroy in France. During this three-day battle alone, there were 2577 Australians killed.
Fraser’s other relative was William Reid of Woodenbong, New South Wales, enlisted at Lismore on August 12, 1915 aged 23.
He was a member of the 25th Battalion, 6th Reinforcement and embarked from Brisbane on October 21, 1915 for the Middle East.
However, following the carnage on the Western Front, he was sent to France on January 27, 1917.
He was newly promoted to Lance Corporal before he was eventually killed in the Battle of Butte de Warlencourt at Bapaume, on February 26, 1917. He has no known grave site and is listed at the Australian War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France.
The Whittaker Family
Students Ashleigh, Matthew and Lauren Whittaker wish to honour their Great, Great Uncle, Robert Sutton.
Private Robert Sutton of Roma enlisted on December 18, 1916 at 18 years of age. He was the son of Horatio and Annie Sutton of Rockybank Station and he sailed for England on June 21, 1917.
He ended up in France in January, 1918 and was taken on strength with the 41st Battalion on January 8. Robert was later involved in the second action at Villers-Bretonneux and was killed in the Battle of the Somme on April 24, 1918.
He is buried at Bonnay Communal Cemetery Extention, Somme. He is honoured in Roma by a bottle tree at the Roma War Memorial Heroes Avenue.
“Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn;
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them”
(Binyon)
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