Fromelles soldiers named

[Soren]

Fromelles soldiers named

The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel, Alan Griffin, today announced the names of a further 19 soldiers who were recently reburied in Fromelles, France. This follows yesterday’s announcement of the number of newly identified soldiers.
The men’s families have now been informed and the soldiers’ names are in the table below.
The new identifications brings the total number of named Australian soldiers to 94.
Mr Griffin said, “I am pleased to announce the names of these 19 Australian soldiers, whose names have been lost to history for almost a century”.
“These soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice at Fromelles in the service of their nation and this will not be forgotten. Their families now know where these men are laid to rest, nearly 94 years after the battle.
“They have been given the dignity of a burial in an individual grave in the new purpose-built Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery with full military honours, and their name will appear on their headstone.
Of the 250 soldiers recovered from Pheasant Wood, in the village of Fromelles, 205 have now been identified as Australians.The number of British soldiers identified by the force in which they served remains unchanged at three, and 42 soldiers remain ‘Known unto God’.
All but one of the soldiers have now been reburied in individual graves in the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery, with the final soldier being laid to rest on the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles on 19 July 2010.
If you believe you are related to a soldier killed or missing from the Battle of Fromelles, please contact the Australian Fromelles Project Group at www.army.gov.au/fromelles or on 1800 019 090.
Media contacts:


Names of Soldiers Identified at May 2010 Joint Identification Board

Regimental number Rank Surname Name Unit
3761 Private Bishop Raymond Charles 55th Battalion
Lieutenant Chinner Eric Harding 32nd Battalion
2006 Private Croft George 30th Battalion
2010 Private Croker Harry 30th Battalion
3047 Private Dewar Robert Arthur 55th Battalion
4509 Private Harriott Laurence 54th Battalion
188 Private Hawcroft Charles Henry 30th Battalion
4807 Private Irvin David George 54th Battalion
293 Private McLean Hugh 32nd Battalion
269 Private Nevill Joseph Howard 31st Battalion
2906 Lance Corporal Pagan George 54th Battalion
320 Private Parry Frederick 29th Battalion
3099 2nd Lieutenant Pratt Albert Ernest 53rd Battalion
4614 Private Spence Malcolm 30th Battalion
2898 Corporal Stalgis Gregory Francis 14th Machine Gun Company
4885 Private Verpillot Aime 53rd Battalion
4617 Private Wallis Joseph Patrick (AKA Wailes) 54th Battalion
2910 Private Webb Thomas Richard 60th Battalion
1314 Private Wilkin Ernest Frank 29th Battalion

[judy7007]

Thank you Lambis for your persistence and to everyone involved in this project. It is hard for me to read these names (and all the others identified) without a lump forming in my throat, especially thinking what might not have been.

Judy

[madgarry]

Thats great news,my wifes family are still waiting in hope that Frank Ledbury 1st battalion coldstream guards will one day be found or if hes buried as an unknown identified.

[Fedelmar]

Pleasing result. Sherlock and I can take pride in our work where Verpillot is concerned

There are still 45 boys that cannot be identified as either English or Australian. The DNA matching will be very important for those 45.

Lest we forget!

[River97]

94 with a named headstone. I was waiting for the list of 19 to come out.

Rest in peace soldier boys, gone and not forgotten.

[clarke]

3761 Private Raymond Charles Bishop of the 55th Bn, his cousin Pte B Bishop MM, 55th BN, who survived Fromelles was informed of his cousin loss by a fellow member of the 55th Bn;

he volunteered to be apart of a two man rearguard...

'I guess when you were last over about midnight you could see how difficult our set-up was. The Germans were closing in on us from either side as well as the front. We were becoming like an island in the midst of the Germans, our position rapidly becoming more hopeless. One lot of Germans were working along to cut us off....'

'we all-knew what that meant.'

His officer informed them, "we've got to get back, and we've got to save our guns," he told us. "That group over there is our greatest danger. Will two men volunteer to take bombs and try to hold them back while we get away with the guns, then follow us?"

'Ray and another kid volunteered. Scrambling out of the trench they made for the group of Germans. Ray's mate was killed almost at once. Then Ray was hit. He couldn't stand. He crawled closer to the Germans, threw his bombs, turned to come back. The men and guns had got away. I waited. I helped Ray down into our possie. He was soaked form blood from several wounds. He was dying fast. I believe he was dead as I ran from dozens of Germans closing in.'

It's great that they have finally found him.

Lest We Forget

[MBrockway]

All being remembered by Pal Victoria Burridge at the Fromelles Remembrance Service this weekend

Mark

[IPT]

Lieutenant Eric Chinner was born in Peterborough (then Petersburg), a railway town roughly halfway between Adelaide and Broken Hill. He was engaged to Gladys Dunn, a Broken Hill girl who lived in the Silver City until the age of 35. Gladys was the oldest daughter of Alfred Dunn, an engineer at the now defunct Sulphide Corporation. Like Eric, she was also a bank teller, but no-one knows how Eric and Gladys met.

What is known though, is that the two were engaged when Eric Chinner's 32nd Battalion sailed from Adelaide on the 18th November, 1915. Joining the newly raised 5th Australian Division in Egypt, they proceeded to France in June 1916, destined for the Western Front. One month later one of the most horrifying battles in Australian war history took place. Eric's battalion had only entered the front line trenches three days before the troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions attacked. Within 24 hours 5,553 soldiers were dead, injured or missing in action. Eric Chinner was amongst those killed.

It's too long ago to ascertain how Gladys found out, or what her reaction was on hearing of his death. She died in a nursing home in her nineties, and rarely spoke about the soldier she called her 'laddie'. But she did leave behind a locket, inside which is a tiny photo of Eric. The locket also bears the engraved intitials E.H.C (Eric Harding Chinner), and the PAC (Prince Alfred College) motif, the school that Eric attended.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/06/16/2275978.htm

[ianw]

The story of Ray Bishop is really moving.

How wonderful that he has now been identified and that his relatives and all the rest of us can now recognise the great service that he did his country and his comrades all those years ago.

Rest in honoured peace , Ray.

Similarly the story of Eric and Gladys is sad in the extreme. She was a lovely girl and I am sure Eric would have thought of her constantly in his last hours. Marvellous that the locket has now been returned to his family.

These IDs have been such a success and each additional one makes the new cemetery at Fromelles more and more important place for us all to look forward to visiting in the future.

[sarge2871]

...The ` Resolution ` that Lambis told me would one day come has arrived. My ever lasting "Thanks" to Lambis and the team at Fromelles research, especialy Chloe, always nice to talk with you....our Soldier has been found. I am not ashamed to say that I did cry when I got the phone call that I have been waiting for.

To all those who have played their part...I raise my glass to you and may your glass never be empty.

2898 Cpl Gregory Francis Stalgis

14th Machine Gun Co

5th Div

...Gregory`s Mother, Annie, would never accept that her son would not come home from the war and for years after the war had ended she would stand and wait at the garden gate for him to come walking up the road, well now he has come home to his Mother.

" May he lay now forever at peace, Amen "

Colin Stalgis.

[Scotty]

Soren,

Could you direct me to the source of Minister Griffin's announcement in your post? Many thanks. Scotty.

[Fedelmar]

Scotty ...

It is a ministerial media release. You should find in on the minister's website.

Bright Blessings

Sandra

[Scotty]

Thank you Sandra. Much appreciated. Scotty.

[howardchinner]

I am a distant relative of Lieutenant Eric Harding Chinner, "B" Company, 32nd Battalion AIF [iPT May 9 2010]. He had just been made Battalion Bombing Officer and was ordered to defend the Battalion/Brigade's left flank against German counter-attack. This was expected either in the German front-line trench (where a barricade had been built to block an attack from the east) or in the German communications trench called the "Kastenweg", which led from the German front line trench, south to the German-held stronghold at Delangre Farm. A barricade had also been built in the Kastenweg for defense against a German counter-attack from Delangre Farm. It is believed that the bombers of the 32nd Battalion were supported by their own machine-guns and those of the 8th Machine Gun Company.

We are currently researching Eric's last hours, from Army records, witness statements and reports on others who were believed to be near him in this action. Any one who has any information which might help - their assistance would be really appreciated. Howard Chinner