The AIF Project

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.

War service: Egypt, Western Front

Allotted to and proceeded to join 22nd Bn, Moascar, 14 March 1916.

Embarked Alexandria to join the British Expeditionary Force, 19 March 1916; disembarked Marseilles, France, 26 March 1916.

Wounded in action, 27 July 1916 (gun shot wound, conjunctivitis); admitted to 3rd Casualty Clearing Station and transferred to 13th Stationary Hospital, Boulogne, 31 July 1916; transferred to No 1 Convalescent Depot, 1 August 1916; to 2nd Australian Division Base Depot, 5 August 1916; rejoined Bn, in the field, 16 August 1916.

Appointed Lance Corporal, 27 November 1916.

Reported missing in action, 3 May 1917.

Court of Enquiry, held in the field, 26 November 1917, pronounced fate as 'Killed in Action, 3 May 1917'.

Statement, Red Cross File No 2430203, 5415 Pte C.R. STANLEY, 22nd Bn, 28 December 1917: 'I knew Casualty well. He was No. 1 on my gun. He was a tall fair man about 28 years of age, known as "Harry". It was in an advance at Bullecourt at a quarter to 5. A shrapnel shell exploded wounding Casualty and myself. His wounds were around the neck. I undid his coat and gave him a drink of water. The Germans counter-attacked at 11.30 and I am sure he was taken prisoner with Renshaw and other men who were laying there wounded.'