Families and Friends of the First AIF

ANZAC Services at Baverstock and Sutton Veny, Wiltshire

ANZAC Day at St Edith’s Baverstock, Wiltshire, UK

Anzac Day 2008 saw the third Anzac Day Service commemorated at St Edith’s Church Baverstock. The churchyard contains the graves of 32 World War 1 soldiers. Twenty nine of the graves belong to members of the first AIF including two Gallipoli veterans.

Prior to the evening service local school children visited the churchyard to discover the story behind the 29 Australians buried so far from home.

 LEST WE FORGET

Anzac Service, Sutton Veny Sunday 27th April 2008

Why have an Anzac Service at Sutton Veny?  The Minister of Veterans Affairs Department, Australia explains:

An Australian base depot, rest house and hospital were located at Sutton Veny during and shortly after World War I. Every year, the community holds an Anzac Day service commemorating, in particular, the 143 Australians buried in the village cemetery.

In 1916, No 1 Australian Command Depot was established at Sutton Veny and remained until 1919. It was a holding unit for men proceeding to the Western Front – mostly reinforcements who had trained on nearby Salisbury Plain and others recovered from hospital treatment. Men from all States passed through the depot. Many would have become acquainted with Sutton Veny’s attractions, such as pubs and cinemas, with the antipodean troops well regarded by villagers.

The Australian YMCA operated a rest house for war weary troops at Greenhill House, now known as Sutton Veny House. With over 50 rooms, the mansion accommodated men on leave or recovering from wounds and illnesses, its lawns and grounds a haven from the war zone.

After the Armistice, the 1st Australian General Hospital moved to Sutton Veny and treated wounded and sick troops until late 1919. Many of the 143 Australians interred in the cemetery at St John the Evangelist Church were patients, and two were nurses, with 101 deaths from the Spanish Flu outbreak after the Armistice. Tragically, many, like Lieutenant John Laidlaw DCM, had survived the horrors of trench warfare only to succumb at this stage.

By early 1920, the Australians had departed. Even before then, school children had begun decorating the war graves at St John the Evangelist Church with flowers. This custom continues, and the community holds an Anzac Day service every year attended by locals, consular officials from Australia House, and other Australians. Inside the church, a side chapel was dedicated as the Anzac Chapel and Australian and New Zealand flags hang there permanently. Additional decorations include an embroidered Anzac badge and a framed list of the Australians buried in the churchyard.

Of course, Sutton Veny also remembers its own war dead, with a war memorial visible from the churchyard. As if reinforcing the bond between Australia and Sutton Veny, one of those listed on the memorial is Private Arthur Pond, 11th Battalion AIF, who emigrated before World War I and enlisted at Perth, Western Australia, in 1916. He was killed in action at Lihons on 10 August 1918 and has no known grave. He is commemorated on Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France, and on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

Codford St Mary, in the UK, is the final resting place of 97 Anzacs – 66 New Zealanders and 31 Australians – from the Great War. Each year locals and visitors gather in the cemetery at Dawn to commemorate Anzac Day.

This year the Australian Armed Forces were represented by Major Mark Stone. The Honour Roll was read as the morning light filled the cemetery. Followed by a young lone piper playing a lament as wreaths were laid.

On the chalk downs nearby to Codford St Mary can be seen the Lamb Down Badge – a Rising Sun Badge carved by into the hillside in 1916-1918 by Australian troops stationed at Codford during World War 1.

Local history group records:

Australian and New Zealand troops began arriving in Codford, July 1916. There were ANZAC hospitals and rehabilitation and training centres in the area.

The badge was carved into the hillside in 1916-18 by Australian troops. The then Australian Brigade Commander of the nearby Australian garrison would gaze out from the reading room at Stockton House and came up with the idea of leaving his mark on the English countryside.

His decision led to defaulters carving out a copy of the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF’s) “Rising Sun” badge in the chalk on the hillside. The 13th Training Battalion, (AIF), started the initial carving and clearing work on the badge. It was then embedded with green, brown and clear beer bottles to make it shine bronze, like the badge worn on the Australian uniform.

Maintaining the badge became the focus of punishment parades and the spur on which it is carved became known as “Misery Hill” by Australian troops.

The badge remained untouched until WWII when it was covered over to prevent enemy aircraft using it as a navigation aid. After the war it was uncovered, however most of the glass had either washed away or sunk into the chalk below.

The outline of the Lamb Down Badge remains to this day and due to the nature of its construction material, chalk, it requires annual maintenance. Being some 175ft wide by 150ft tall this is a daunting task.

The work essentially involves chipping back the grass, re-creating the chalk outline, cleaning out dirty chalk and replacing it.

A crowd of more than 5000 people attended the special Australian Dawn Service at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, France.

Carole Laignel, Secretary of the Fromelles Museum shares her thoughts on attending this service:

How happy I was to be at Villers Bretonneux & Bullecourt yesterday !

you can’t imagine ? I was by the spirit in communion with you & all your brave soldiers who died for us ! thanks to every one !

……….LEST WE FORGET !

Here is an internet site where you could go on to see some photos taken in the morning in VB ! Here it is : http://thellier.balloide-photo.com

 Yves Fohlen also attended the service and has sent this photo….

  “showing the original cross erected by the diggers of the 51st Bn in memory of their mates KIA at VB  taken back to Australia and brought back to attend the 2008/1918 ceremonies”