{"id":8810,"date":"2010-05-26T23:59:57","date_gmt":"2010-05-26T12:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=8810"},"modified":"2010-05-26T23:59:57","modified_gmt":"2010-05-26T12:59:57","slug":"fromelles-freedom-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=8810","title":{"rendered":"Fromelles Freedom Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Freedom Bell of Fromelles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The village school of Fromelles, “Les Cobbers”, hosted a special assembly for the unveiling of the new school bell \u2013 The Freedom Bell of Fromelles \u2013 on Tuesday 25th<\/sup> May 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: School children of “Les Cobbers” school Fromelles<\/p>\n

The bell was unveiled by Australian ex-serviceman Vern Bechaz who was inspired by the respect shown by the children of the school to the fallen from the Battle of Fromelles. Mr Bechaz a veteran of the Australian Navy arranged for the bell, which is modelled on a ship\u2019s bell, to be made in Australia and brought to France.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: Vern Bechaz addresses the assembly<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto<\/strong>: Mayor of Fromelles, Monsieur Hubert Huchette
\naddresses the assembly with school Principal
\nMadame Nathalie Braule<\/p>\n

During the assembly the school children sang songs from Australia and Britain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: The school children singing a \u2018round\u2019 in three parts<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto<\/strong>: Mayor of Fromelles, Monsieur Hubert Huchette thanking Vern Bechaz for the gift
\n(l to r) Catherine Bechaz, Hubert Huchett,
\nSam Rossato from the Australian Embassy and Vern Bechaz<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: The Fromelles\u2019 Freedom Bell hanging in the school entry way<\/p>\n

The Bell is flanked by three plaques. The centre plaque depicts the colour patches of the 5th<\/sup>\u00a0Division AIF, the outer plaques tell the story behind the Freedom Bell in both French and English.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: Colour patches of the 5th<\/sup> Division AIF<\/p>\n

The inscription on the plaque reads:<\/p>\n

The Freedom Bell of Fromelles<\/span><\/p>\n

Dedicated to the memory of Australia\u2019s 5th<\/sup> Division soldiers who gave their lives in the name of Freedom during the \u201cBattle of Fromelles\u201d 19-20 July 1916.<\/span><\/p>\n

The respect shown by the Principal, Madame Nathalie Braule and the school children of \u201cLes Cobbers\u201d Primary School in honouring Australia\u2019s fallen has inspired ex-serviceman Vern Bechaz of Victoria, Australia and Alain Gaudet, a Canadian living in France to grant the school\u2019s wish of a special \u201cBell of Remembrance\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cast and donated by Alliance Castings of Melbourne, Australia, the Bell is engraved with special permission granted by the Chiefs of Defence with Badges of the Australian Armed Forces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Presented by Vern and Catherine Bechaz on 25 May 2010, The Bell, Plaques and gifts to the children of \u201cLes Cobbers\u201d were made possible by the generous donations of the ex-servicemen\u2019s organizations and the people of Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n

May the children of both France and Australia never forget the price of their Freedom when the Bell rings in the start of their school day.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: \u00a0The official party at unveiling of
\nthe Freedom Bell of Fromelles<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of the assembly gifts were exchanged and the children talked with Vern.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto<\/strong>: The school being presented with a boxing kangaroo flag<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Photo<\/strong>: Catherine & Vern Bechaz receive gifts of French \u2018produce\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a>Photos<\/strong>: “Les Cobbers” school children chat with Vern<\/p>\n

The photos in this report were sent by FFFAIF member and Secretary of the Fromelles Museum Madame Carole Laignel. Many thanks once again to Carole for sharing\u00a0with us what is happening in and around \u00a0Fromelles.<\/p>\n

The following reports appeared in the local papers in Fromelles:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The Families and Friends of the First AIF<\/em><\/strong> thanks the Australian, UK and French Governments for affording Australian and British soldiers dignified individual reburials in the new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds the Australian and British Governments for their joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Freedom Bell of Fromelles The village school of Fromelles, “Les Cobbers”, hosted a special assembly for the unveiling of the new school bell \u2013 The Freedom Bell of Fromelles \u2013 on Tuesday 25th May 2010. Photo: School children of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-top-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}