The AIF Project

2nd Lieutenant

Temporary LT

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, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (Gallipoli Campaign), 12 April 1915.

Promoted Second Lieutenant, 27 May 1915.

Evacuated to hospital, 3 July 1915; admitted to HS 'Neuralia', Dardanelles, 6 July 1915 (influenza); transferred to No 1 General Hospital, Heliopolis, 9 July 1915.

Embarked for Dardanelles, 3 August 1915; rejoined 14th Bn, Dardanelles, 19 August 1915.

Promoted Temporary Lieutenant, 19 Augugst 1915.

Wounded in action, 22 August 1915, and reverts to the rank of Second Lieutenant on evacuation; embarked on HS 'Franconia', ex-Mudros, 24 August 1915; admitted to No 2 General Hospital, London, England, 10 September 1915 (septic leg).

Transferred from Abbey Wood to Monte Video, 9 May 1916.

Marched into No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 28 June 1916.

Promoted Lieutenant, 1 January 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 10 January 1917; marched into 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot, Etaples, 13 January 1917.

Proceeded to unit, 22 January 1917; rejoined 14th Bn, in the field, 25 January 1917.

Admitted to No 13 Field Ambulance, 7 March 1917 (gonorrhoea); transferred to No 2 British Red Cross Hospital, Rouen, 10 March 1917; to No 39 General Hospital, Le Havre, 10 March 1917; discharged, 31 March 1917; marched into 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot, 3 April 1917.

Proceeded to unit, 4 April 1917; rejoined 14th Bn, 6 April 1917.

Killed in action, 11 April 1917.