OT: 90 Years On

Bruce Scott · Post by **Bruce Scott** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 5:27 pm

WORLD NEWS Friday Oct 5 08:19 AEST

Diggers laid to rest in Belgium
Friday October 5, 2007

Ninety years ago, Australian diggers Sergeant George Calder and Private John Hunter were among thousands of soldiers whose bodies went missing on the bloody World War I battlefields of Belgium.

But thanks to some routine roadworks in a quiet Flemish town last year and high-tech DNA tests, four of the soldiers' closest surviving relatives finally laid them to rest on Thursday (2300 AEST).

The relatives joined Governor-General, Major General, Michael Jeffery at the Buttes Military Cemetery for a special re-interment ceremony with full military honours for the two soldiers and three others found buried in an unmarked grave.

The diggers perished in September 1917 during the Allies' notorious fight for Polygon Wood against the Germans during the Battle of Passchendaele campaign, or Third Battle of Ypres.

Their remains were identified from a group of five Australian soldiers found buried in August last year in the rural town of Westhoek, near Ieper (Ypres) in west Flanders.

A team of road workers laying gas pipes stumbled across the bodies, wrapped in blankets or groundsheets and tied up with signal wire.

While their Australian army uniforms and rising sun badges indicated what country they were from, DNA tests were carried out on the remains and unlocked the mystery of two of their identities.

Calder, a renowned non-commissioned officer of the 51st Battalion, was positively identified after his 77-year-old great niece Faye Harris provided a saliva swab for testing from her home in Melbourne earlier this year.

She was too frail to attend the re-interment ceremony, so her two daughters, Sue Moore and Anne Morrison, flew over from Melbourne to represent the family.

"She is really pleased that we could come and represent her," Moore said.

"She has found it all very emotional."

General Jeffery said the soldiers deserved to be honoured for their "sense of duty to country, their indomitable fighting spirit and for the horrific conditions of shell, gas, machine gun, barbed wire and mud they so bravely endured".

"They were innovative and inured to hardship," he said.

"When the Mother Country, France and Belgium were threatened by tyranny, they flocked to the colours as volunteers because it was the right thing to do."

In less than six weeks, 8,000 Australian soldiers lost their lives and another 30,000 were wounded in the Passchendaele battles - losses equal to the entire Gallipoli campaign.

Before he was killed, aged 24, Calder lived in Boulder, in outback Western Australia.

Fellow digger, John Hunter, 29, belonged to the 49th Infantry Battalion, and was a cattle farmer from the southern Queensland town of Nanango.

Hunter's niece Mollie Millis, who lives in Brisbane, and nephew Jim Hunter, who also hails from Nanango, travelled to Belgium this week to farewell him.

Jim Hunter's father, also named Jim, enlisted two days before his brother John and they managed to remain together until the latter was killed in action.

While John Hunter and George Calder have finally been identified, mystery surrounds the identity of the other three bodies.

Sisters Rosemary Sheehan and Adrienne Verco also travelled to Belgium for the re-interment ceremony, amid hopes that their missing great uncle, Pte Colin Neil Macarthur, was one of the unidentified trio.

A DNA sample provided by their mother was initially thought to be a match, but the sisters learned this week that it was inconclusive.

While disappointed, they chose to represent the relatives of the three unknown soldiers.

"The unknown are not going to their graves unloved," Mrs Sheehan said

BlaineCGarverakaTubbyTuba · Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:07 pm

That makes me happy......

don Tomás · Post by **don Tomás** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:08 pm

"Lest we forget..."
Thank you for the post,

Ben_Rumson · Post by **Ben_Rumson** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:16 pm

Yep Salute!

gamekeeper · Post by **gamekeeper** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:19 pm

Brave men, may they rest in peace.

Mike D. · Post by **Mike D.** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:20 pm

Thanks for posting that, Bruce Too many WWI soldiers just disappeared with the trenches.
A while back, I saw a program on Discovery where some Belgian and British archaeologist excavated some trenches at Ypers. Several bodies were exhumed in the process. The original maps were used to locate the trench lines and what they found was amazing. Everything they used was buried in those trenches from Hell.

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:20 pm

I have something in my eye

2ndovc · Post by **2ndovc** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:31 pm

That's a great quote " The Unknown are not going to their graves unloved"

Mrs. Sheehan is quite a Lady!

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:24 pm

Rest in peace, brave warriors...

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:51 pm

Thank you Bruce, it's nice to see they got the honor they deserve.

Two good books that tell of life in WWI are both by H.W. McBride.

1) The Emma Gees
2) A Rifleman Went to War

Both will give you a new found respect for our grandfathers.

Rusty <><

WCF3030 · Post by **WCF3030** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:57 pm

Thanks for posting it.

airedaleman · Post by **airedaleman** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:28 pm

Raise a glass to fallen heroes and our Australian allies! They remain our true friends...