A community’s sorrow at lost sons.

[River97]

Hi David,

Thanks for the comment. I have no doubt there would have been many other communities just like this, you just have to look on the local war memorials. I think it makes a nice visual display to show how much an area suffered, and from an angle not commonly covered. Now this cemetery has been consumed by the greater Adelaide area, but effectively, during and the years after the Great War, it was a suburban burial ground.

The following are the last three soldiers to be added, a pair of brothers and another of those to fall in February 1917.

Cheers Andy.

Frank Frederick Frerichs

Rank: Private

Service No: 5461

Date of Death: 09/11/1916

Age: 22

Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F., 10th Bn.

Grave Reference: V. D. 30.

Cemetery: HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE

Additional Information: Son of Johann Gerhardt Fredrick Frerichsand Beatrice R. Frerichs, of 51 Magill Rd., Beulah Park, South Australia. Native of Kensington, South Australia.

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour

Jack Frerichs

Rank: Lance Corporal

Service No: 2458A

Date of Death: 23/05/1918

Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F., 50th Bn.

Grave Reference: II. C. 16.

Cemetery: VIGNACOURT BRITISH CEMETERY

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour

Lindsay Gordon Stephens

Rank: Private

Service No: 2162

Date of Death: 23/02/1917

Age: 28

Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F., 42nd Bn.

Grave Reference: III. F. 7.

Cemetery: CITE BONJEAN MILITARY CEMETERY, ARMENTIERES

Additional Information: Son of Horace Steele Stephens and Mary Roach Stephens; husband of Una Stephens, of Elizabeth St., Riverstone, New South Wales. Born at Mongolata, South Australia.

Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour

[River97]

So, what are some of the conclusions from the preceding posts?

Obviously all soldiers had a direct connection to South Australia. There are 71 servicemen listed, falling on the field of battle, or succumbing to wounds or illness during many Australian campaigns of the Great War. Shown are inscriptions to those who fell at the Landings at ANZAC, Lone Pine, Fromelles, Pozieres, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Villers Bretonneux, Amiens and more.

24 are listed on memorials to the missing, with the others in beautiful cemeteries in the UK, Turkey, Australia, Egypt, Israel, France and Belgium.

There is a fair spread through the infantry battalions (15 separate) with those raised in South Australia featuring heavily. There are 11 soldiers listed from the 10th Battalion, seven from it's pup, the 50th Battalion, eight from the 27th Battalion and another seven from Australia's 'Joan of Arc' Battalion, the 48th.

Not all were serving with Australian forces when they died. Reginald Davey was serving with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. As mentioned previously, there are six sets of brothers.

There we are.

Cheers Andy.

[frev]

Hi Andy

This is certainly an interesting find.

I've been photographing WW1 Vets graves in cemeteries around Melbourne for a few years now, and as I walk the rows looking for them, I also pick up the Memorials on family headstones. I've photographed a dozen cemeteries so far - and without checking my database, I'm fairly confident that I don't have that many Memorials over the entire range.

It really says something about the families in that area.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers, Frev

[frev]

Frank Salter

Nothing on CWGC or the Australian War Memorial.

Hi again Andy

Frank Salter enlisted as Alfred Leslie PITT

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/5570505?searchTerm=frank salter &searchLimits=fromyyyy=1917|||frommm|||fromdd|||toyyyy=1917|||tomm|||todd

http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/roll_of_honour/person.asp?p=500533

Cheers, Frev

[River97]

Oh Frev, you star.

Thank you very much, I'll add his details under the photo.

You are right about the quantity. I have walked the rows in many a cemetery myself, some big, and I was struck by the concentration of memorial inscriptions from this one cemetery.

Thanks again, Cheers Andy.

[River97]

After an eight month gap I ventured back to Payneham Cemetery this afternoon.

It is my sad duty to inform that some of the headstones above are no longer. As this is a open cemetery owned by a civil authority they reuse the plots after a certain amount of time. There are a few row's that have now been removed and a few others now have the dreaded blue sticker of doom.

Unfortunately there is also the grave of SGT Hugh MacMillan. http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=183815&hl=%2Bhugh+%2Bmacmillan . This grave also has the blue sticker, and unless there is something that can be done, his final resting place will be lost.

Cheers Andy.

[geraint]

This is an excellent collection Andy. A most worthwhile project. Ohh dear! Such a poignant gathering of young lads.

[Guest Cree]

I have just come across this post. it is most interesting. as a volunteer researcher with the Cultural Heritage Center of the City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peters in South Australia, I have been researching the names and stories of the about 3000 men and women from the council area who served in the Great War. It is not surprising that the Payneham Cemetery has so many memorials to them.

What is particularly upsetting is that the old graves in the cemetery are being lost as the site are reused, unless the families pay an exorbitant amount to re-lease them. Some of the memorials are being returned to the families or left to lie along the fences, but many have been crushed and lost forever. Many of those in this post have been lost in the few short years since they were taken.

This shows complete disrespect to those who served.

[Guest]

There is much that one might observe regarding the photographs of memorials in Payneham cemetery.  Three mentioned were sons of clergy: two sons of the Rev. John Blacket and one of the Rev. John Watts, both Methodist.  The latter was in his presidential year for the South Australian Conference when he received the news of the death of his son.

 

Another mentioned is Private Godfree.  Bruce Lyle Godfree (SN 2147) had been a student of Capt. John Wesley Blacket at Prince Alfred College.  According to a chaplain:

 

Quote

 

Only a couple of minutes before [his] death, he gave his steel helmet to a private who had been almost covered with earth thrown up by a shell. It was an act that became the man, and was in keeping with the reputation he had among the officers and men.

 

 

In perhaps his last letter home Blacket reported:

Quote

We have had a lot of casualties, and I have lost some good men.  Two jolly fine boys (in another company) were killed the other day, whom I used to teach—George Davies (son of Dr. Davies) and a lad named Godfrey (sic).  Davies had already been recommended for a decoration for bringing in wounded, and Godfrey when killed, was digging out a comrade who had been buried by a shell.  However those deeds live and add lustre to the regiment’s name.  The trouble is that so many are hit through going to the assistance of others when under fire.  This is strictly against orders, but the spirit of those lads is such that it cannot be suppressed.

 

 

Several others mentioned also had a close association with one or other church, mostly Methodists—and interesting.