While more fallen WWI soldiers are being identified, what’s on their headstones can be surprising
In northern France, the story of Australian troops who died during World War I is still being written in stone.
In the face of perceived establishment indifference, Englezos and others spent years searching British and German records before they finally discovered the pits used by the German Army to bury 250 Commonwealth soldiers who had been killed on the German side of No Man’s Land.
Englezos believes we have a national duty to recover and honour our war dead. His son Anthony fought in Afghanistan. “We saw him swear his oath of allegiance at his induction, before he went off to train,” says Englezos. “And soon after, I was in V.C. Corner Cemetery when I took a phone call from my Australian soldier son – and there are 410 Australian soldiers buried in that cemetery: no headstones, not recognisable. The irony and the symbolism was not lost on me.
“I’m not the hard bastard I look,” says Englezos, who does not look like a hard bastard.
When the mass graves were excavated in 2008, there were thought to be several British troops among the bodies, but it’s now widely believed that all (or all but one) are Australian. A total of 181 men have been identified by DNA, and all are buried at Pheasant Wood. Every year on the anniversary of the battle, the name of another Australian – or handful of Australians – is generally announced, and new headstones are unveiled.
It’s 110 years since the battle when our tour group enters the cemetery, and a single stone is wrapped in bright red cloth embroidered with the emblem of the Australian Commonwealth Military Forces. It stands over the grave of Private Roy Leslie Martin, a labourer born in Young, NSW. A podium has been erected with seating for various military and civil dignitaries, including Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Godkin of the Australian Army and the Mayor of Fromelles.
Among them sit Australians whose ancestors are buried at Pheasant Wood, including Ray Martin, the nephew of the late Private Martin. There are speeches in English and French; a rather ramshackle procession of local ex-servicepeople; the Ode of Remembrance; the Last Post; a minute’s silence; two national anthems; the Lord’s Prayer; and a bagpiper playing Amazing Grace.
