This Anzac Day, as on many before, Crookwell High School captains will read out the names of the fallen of our area. Many of those men lie in the beautifully tended Commonwealth War Cemeteries across what we call the Western Front. In Belgium and across north Eastern France, these instantly recognisable grounds of green lawns with the white headstones stand testimony to the sacrifices made from all over the world. We think of that well-loved poem, with those guns silenced almost 100 years ago, with present-day visitors speaking only in low voices, or silent as they study the names of the fallen on those white headstones:
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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
Of the 86 people from Crookwell and district who never returned, 14 have no known graves. For this group of 14, their names are recorded together in only two places in the world: our own memorial park here, and the world-renowned memorial, the Menin Gate, in Ypres, Belgium. Jane Parlett, daughter of Ian and Phyllis Laverty, works for the Australian Embassy in Brussels. Jane has been searching for the names of soldiers from this district among the 6191 men of the Australian Imperial Force, whose names are inscribed on the stones of the Menin Gate, over 54,000 with No Known Grave.
Of the 25 names that Jane researched, 14 are those who have no known grave. Looking at those names, it is striking how young they were: Henry A. Allport, 32; Nathaniel Barlett, 24; Laurence Barley, 40; Albert H. Bewley, 37; Augustine Cosgrove, 26; Innes C. Cunningham, 31; Rudolph (Ralph) Ford, 28; Sidney A. Gilett, 22; Henry Gurney, 24; Mark Holmes, 21; Charles McDonald, 28; Aubrey Pagett, 22; James White, 22; and Clyde Wilson, 24.
Every night of the year, traffic is stopped at the Menin Gate. Crowds gather. At 8pm, a bugle sounds the Last Post; a minute’s silence falls. And these local men, with no known graves, are honoured. It is a rather special link, our own young people, the Crookwell High captains, here in our Memorial Park on Wednesday, together with Jane, a local woman who will be at both the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Cemetery, and our local community together, all united in remembrance this Anzac Day 2018.
