V.C. CORNER AUSTRALIAN MEMORIAL, Fromelles

[tbirduk]

Does anyone know the date when the CWGC Memorial was dedicated?

Thanks
pete

[jonbem]

from

https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/78900/v.c.-corner-australian-cemetery-and-memorial,-fromelles/

HISTORY INFORMATION

On the morning of 19 July 1916, after a preliminary bombardment, the 5th Australian and 61st (South Midland) Divisions undertook what is officially known as the Attack at Fromelles. The 61st Division attack failed in the end, with the loss of over 1,500 officers and men out of 3,400 who took part in it. The Australian left and centre reached the German trenches and held their second line during the day and night, but the right was held off by a fierce machine-gun barrage and only reached the front line in isolated groups. The action was broken off on the morning of 20 July, after the 5th Australian Division had lost over 5,500 officers and men. It was the first serious engagement of the Australian forces in France, and the only one to achieve no success.

V.C. Corner Cemetery was made after the Armistice. It contains the graves of 410 Australian soldiers who died in the Attack at Fromelles and whose bodies were found on the battlefield, but not a single body could be identified. It was therefore decided not to mark the individual graves, but to record on a memorial the names of all the Australian soldiers who were killed in the engagement and whose graves were not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, was built to commemorate nearly 1,300 Australian casualties, however since then many have subsequently had graves identified for them (in particular as a result of the excavation of the Pheasant Wood mass grave site in 2009), so today, it is the point of commemoration for 1,100 Australian casualties.

 

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V.C._Corner_Australian_Cemetery_and_Memorial

 

[tbirduk]

Neither show a dedication date? Perhaps, as it is a combination "Screen Wall" and Memorial to the Missing, it predates such ceremonies.
 It was presumably contentious in 1921/1922 as the construction clashed with the work of the Midleton Committee and is ignored in most books on IWGC Cemeteries.

 

[UKAIF]

My first edition of Sidney C. Hurst's The Silent Cities published in 1929 has a photograph, rather than a sketch as is the case with some memorials/cemeteries, so it was ready by then. I somehow doubt that there was any large scale 'opening' upon completion of each cemetery.

[tbirduk]

Not a direct answer to the Dedication date but some think it is questionable how much work was actually Baker's ....

to quote a non CWGC source (Translated from French, so forgive the grammar and terminology)

the VC Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial was built after the armistice to plans by architect William Harrison Cowlishaw (1869-1957) and built on the old no man's land. It is, with the military cemetery of the Commonwealth Niagara Cemetery (Iwuy, North), one of the best examples of his creativity. ....

A foreground of the cemetery was drawn up by the army in June 1920, showing the symmetrical spatial organization of the two mass graves, each organized in five rows. It is specified that these are the graves of unknown Australian soldiers and the place is located on a map of the General Staff mentioning the surrounding streets and the directions of Fleurbaix and Neuve-Chapelle. A plan of June 23, 1921 mentions, for the drawing, the architect Herbert Baker, with for architect in France William Harrison Cowlishaw, who aims the plan in September 1921. In its meeting of October 26, 1921, the commission of the military cemeteries from the ^1stBritish army corps acknowledges the need to maintain the existing British cemetery in its place and condition at the place called Chemin de Laventie. Covering an area of 23 acres 18 centiares, at this date a quarter of the area is still available. This is why it was decided to transfer the 41 bodies buried there in the Cardonnerie cemetery ( cardonnerie farm ) in order to regroup all the bodies at the VC Corner. A public utility and emergency decree was issued on January 4, 1923 for the acquisition of a plot of land for the creation of a British cemetery. It is a question, as elsewhere, of regularizing the situation. In October 1923, the architect Cowlishaw drew up a series of plans for the VC Corner australian cemetery, detailing the materials, the masonry of the walls (alliance of schist and white stone) and the spatial organization of the whole. The scenography of this cemetery without an apparent tomb is articulated around the axis of the entrance portal / cross of sacrifice / great wall. The names are listed on a large white wall which ends with 2 symmetrical pavilions, open on three sides by a large semicircular arch and dominated by the cross of sacrifice. The CWGC's annual report for 1926-1927 presents a photograph of this cemetery where the two mass graves are surrounded by small hedges. In 1931, it was observed that visitors did not realize that soldiers were buried under the lawn due to the absence of stelae. We then add two large stone crosses on the ground to attract attention.