The AIF Project

George KITCHER

Regimental number3084
Date of birth5 August 1884
Place of birthGlen Morrison, New South Wales
Place of birthGlen Morrison (near Walcha, New South Wales)
SchoolGlen Morrison Public School, Glen Morrison, New South Wales
ReligionPresbyterian
OccupationLabourer
AddressGlen Morrison via Walcha, New South Wales
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation32
Next of kinMother, Mrs Elizabeth Kitcher, Glen Morrison via Walcha, New South Wales
Enlistment date11 November 1916
Rank on enlistmentPrivate
Unit name33rd Battalion, 7th Reinforcement
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/50/3
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from Sydney, New South Wales, on board HMAT A68 Anchises on 24 January 1917
Rank from Nominal RollPrivate
Unit from Nominal Roll33rd Battalion
FateKilled in Action 10 April 1918
Place of death or woundingVillers-Brettoneux, France
Age at death33
Age at death from cemetery records33
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsAustralian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, France

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
122
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: Thomas and Elizabeth KITCHER, Glen Morrison, New South Wales
Family/military connectionsBrothers: 1891 Pte Frank Herbert KITCHER, 1st Light Horse, returned to Australia, 15 November 1918; 3085 Pte Stanley KITCHER, 33rd Bn, died of wounds, 18 October 1917; 5439 Sergeant William Henry KITCHER, 15th Bn, killed in action, Messines, Belgium, 10 June 1917.
Other detailsSon of Thomas William and Elizabeth (nee Bowden) Kitcher

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