Pilgrimage Private Neagle 2018

"I am always looking for the story behind the name on a grave or memorial. A picture on the grave of the soldier J.M.C Neagle at the CWGC Buttes New British Cemetery put me in touch with Julie Reece. On October 23rd, 2018 I followed her in the footsteps of her great uncle." 

GREGORY VERFAILLIE, Zonnebeke, Belgium 

In 2018 I received an email from Gregory Verfaillie wishing to make contact with me to learn about the story of my great Uncle Marty Neagle. Greg lives close to Polygon Wood where Marty is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Buttes New British Cemetery. While walking through the woods and the cemetery over the years, Greg has taken great interest in those who are buried there. As relatives and other battlefield tourists visit these hallowed places, messages, cards and other commemorative items are often left at the graves and memorials to acknowledge those who lie in these cemeteries. 

Over the years of taking groups to Marty's grave, the cards left at his grave, would have a personal message accompanied by an email address and details of the Connecting Spirits project. This is where the young man from Flanders enters the narrative: Greg took note of the email address after the 2017 tour and his first contact was initiated last year. Friendly conversations over social media flourished and a friendship had its beginnings. In 2018 after a tour to Italy, I decided to fly over to Belgium for a short visit to catch up with friends. While in Ypres I had the opportunity to meet Greg and also his friend Frank Mahieu. Both were generous with their time and they kindly took my friend Jo Kirlew and me to Polygon Wood for the day. The story of that day and the very special links that came from our meeting, have been well documented on this blog and other social media platforms.

That warm friendship has now gone to yet another level, with the work of the volunteers at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 (MMP) with the launch of their new exhibition  'Reflection 1914-1918' on display until December . 

One of the key projects of the MMP 1917 is developing the archival records of soldiers who fought and died in Passchendaele such as Private James Martin Clement Neagle. The work of people like Greg and Frank and all those at the Memorial Musuem Passchendaele, is extraordinary as much of it is done on a volunteer basis. For those of us whose family members never returned home from the worst conflict of the 20th century, our thanks can not be expressed enough times and we are forever in your debt for all you do in the name of Remembrance. Thanks must also go to the photographers whose work made the exhibition possible. 

To quote their website:

'The Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, also called Battle of Passchendaele, was one of the largest and most bloody battles of the First World War. In a few months of fierce fighting, an estimated 245,000 Commonwealth soldiers (British, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and South Africans ) and 215,000 Germans are taken out of battle for just eight kilometers of ground gain.

Regardless of how impressive a visit to CWGC Tyne Cot Cemetery, the German military cemetery in Langemark or one of the many numerous other cemeteries or monuments is, one can often only find a name there. 

With 'The Passchendaele Archives' the MMP1917 wants to give a face to and tell the story behind these names. Not only missing data is supplemented, but the memory of a fallen family member is kept alive. Karen Derycke and Lee Ingelbrecht are the driving forces behind this project. Historian Karen Derycke is responsible for the investigation of the casualties. Lee Ingelbrecht offers, through his training in landscape development, cartographic support.'

Go to : www.passchendaele.be 

'Pilgrimage Private Neagle 2018' by Gregory Verfaillie (part of the 'Reflection 1914 -1918' exhibition at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke, Belgium. )

Where it all began: the Reece family visited the grave of James Martin Clement Neagle on our first European trip in 1987, over 30 years ago. At this time, the niece of Martin Neagle, Cathy Royal (my mother), was still alive. If only she knew of the many Australians who have since visited the resting place of her favourite uncle, I know that she would have finally gained closure on the grief that never left her on the loss of her beloved Uncle Marty.  

Thank you to Eric Compernolle for your photography. (2018/19) 

Education and emotions on Connecting Spirits tours ... 

By Francesca Atkinson 

Deputy Principal of Meningie Area School Mal Jurgs, has been involved with Connecting Spirits since its inception in 2006, going from traveling to Europe to learn more about the history of World War I (WWI) to working with Julie Recce on the tours. Mal uses each tour to expand his own knowledge, while strengthening his comprehension and researching the exact locations of a specific battle or soldier.

Meningie Area School  is situated on the Coorong in South Australia and until 2017 he was not sure how transitioning from school-based tours to community-based would affect the tours’ credibility. Being community-based from 2017 on, the tours now include people from different regions of South Australia and is not exclusive to schools. However it is still possible for school students to take part depending on their age and by meeting other conditions, and the project continues to have the same intentions of commemorating those who fought in France and Belgium in WWI as in the original CS tours.

“I wasn’t apprehensive coming into the community tour, but I was sort of thinking, how will this go? I guess I had questions because it was different to school-based tour,” Mal said. “There was part of me going, is this going to be my last one as Connecting Spirits tour, but I found it really rewarding, particularly the connection with Frank Lampard. I guess it went back to our project's roots, in terms of the Ngarrindjeri story and it made this connection add another dimension to the story I’ve been living for the last 13 or so years.”

Tour manager Julie Reece undertakes similar itineraries as previous years with a focus on smaller groups thus giving tour members a more personalised journey. On the most recent 2019 tour, Mal and Julie shared the guiding throughout the whole tour. Having toured together many times, this came easily to them as they shared their knowledge of  particular battles or soldiers. In addition, other group members also contributed to the narrative with their own research on their soldiers’ stories.

Mal commemorates an array of soldiers on each tour, some ancestors of his own and some Australian soldiers on behalf of friends or past Connecting Spirits members. For him though, it is most important to understand the journey these soldiers, took from before they left to fight in the war, to when they paid the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives.

Since his first tour, Mal has commemorated his Uncle Frank, who now remains a major part of the Connecting Spirits journey. Through researching the life of Private Frank Howard Bartley, of the 32^nd Battalion, he became intrigued and began investigating his family history further.

“Just to put some context in, when I grew up, I had a lot more to do with my mother’s side of the family than my dad’s because my dad was born in Queensland. I had an understanding of Uncle Frank and his involvement in the war, but just a surface understanding, not a deep understanding. Once we started doing this project, I actually found a lot of what I had been told, wasn’t necessarily true.”

The town of Meningie is a close community and being the Deputy Principal of the local area school, he has been able to share Connecting Spirits with many locals, along with his own wife, son and daughter. Leading up to the first tour in 2006, Mal completed the research of his Uncle Frank with his son who then in turn commemorated him at Villers-Bretonneux, at the memorial where Private Bartley is named, as he has no known grave.

However the next day when visiting Bellicourt Cemetery in France, Mal and his son made the decision to adopt an unknown grave as the one where they would commemorate their Uncle Frank, which has become a popular tradition for families of soldiers who are only Known Unto God. Private Bartley’s last known location was around the Bellicourt region and Mal is able to reflect on the idea of this being the last place on earth his Uncle Frank saw, rather than at the memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

“I said to my son Hamish, look this is where Uncle Frank was, these are some of the last places on earth that Uncle Frank would have seen, this territory. I just looked at him and we both went that sounds right, that’s what we need to do. We just did it automatically, even instinctively and there was no reason for that particular grave, it was purely random.”

The Connecting Spirits tours  enable emotions to be shared openly with the group as everyone forms a close bond, through travelling to commemorate the soldiers. When planning the tour there is a focus on how at times, the group finds itself in situations where the story they are pursuing can become upsetting.  However, this is seen to be completely normal by those who are on return tours.    

As a returning member of Connecting Spirits, Mal is able to reflect on several memories and poignant moments throughout each of the tours. However, being able to share the tour with his children was one of the most moving experiences for Mal.  He saw a different side of them, an emotional side, one that was often hidden in everyday life.

“In 2006 on the first trip with my son, when we commemorated Uncle Frank for the first time  at Villers-Bretonneux,  Hamish talked about him first and I was to  follow him,” Mal says. “He was going to do the commemoration and I was going to give some background and he actually burst into tears. That was the first time, especially for a male participant in the group, that I’d seen do that, and for it to be my son was particularly moving for me.”

During the recent tour, the group was introduced to a group of men from the Passchendaele region of Belgium, who spend their time volunteering in the local community to commemorate soldiers who fought in WWI. Gregory Verfaillie and Frank Mahieu welcomed the group with open arms to Polygon Wood and the Connecting Spirits group members were able to observe their passion in keeping the memory of the Australian soldiers and others alive.

“I found them forthcoming with information and really helpful in, in terms of again, putting that stuff in context, details I knew about, but didn’t really have a good understanding of. It's about adding the layer of geography to your understanding and I felt that in a number of situations. An example of this is the village of Noreuil where Herring and Armitage are buried.  I sort of knew about that battle and that the 50^th Battalion was heavily involved in that, but I didn’t really have an understanding of the lie of the land,” he explained. “That’s something I came away with and now I get it:  I can see where they came from, where they attacked.”  

Taking part in a Connecting Spirits tour, whether it's  your first or potentially your seventh like Mal, it is obvious that no tour is identical.  As Mal explained, "Every time we go on tour we come away with something richer and deeper."

As Connecting Spirits continues to evolve, it will do so with Malcolm Jurgs at the helm and those who are lucky enough to travel with him, will share an experience they will never forget.

The Jurgs family commemorate Frank Bartley at the 'adopted' grave of an Unknown soldier in Bellicourt cemetery in 2008. That grave is located in the area where Mal's great uncle was known to have been killed on September 29, 1918. 

 

Mal at Villers Bretonneux memorial where Frank Bartley's name is remembered.

                                   
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Frank's 'adopted' grave at Bellicourt cemetery, Saturday 13 April, 2019

                                  

  

Francesca's profile number 4 : Ashleigh Martin returns to the battlefields.

Connecting Spirits continues to expand to new communities in South Australia.

By Francesca Atkinson

Connecting Spirits has opportunities for students, teachers and those who interested in the history of World War I, to visit battlefields in Europe to commemorate their ancestors or others from their communities. Ashleigh Martin has just completed her third tour, this time as a qualified primary school teacher at Mount Compass Area School on the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia.

“The first trip, I was only 18 and had never travelled before. On the second tour I took on the role of a youth leader and felt I had to portray myself in a particular way. The recent tour has been different as I’ve been able to just sit back and I think I’ve taken much more in now,” Ashleigh says. “I’m 25 and I took in a lot more information and sort of viewed it differently and through a different lens, which I’ve had on each tour.”

Ashleigh involved her year one and two class in the lead up to the 2019 tour, educating them on how Sutton Veny Church of England Primary School in Wiltshire, England, recognises the Australian servicemen and women in their everyday studies and school life.

The school holds an Anzac service each year, where school children lay posies at the graves of the Australian soldiers and two Australian nurses buried there. After the war, many Australians were waiting to be sent home, when the Spanish Flu went through the region and sadly many of these men and women, who had physically survived the war, died.

Working with her children, during their Humanities and Social Sciences subject to teach them the history of Anzac Day, they created a book to present to the children of Sutton Veny School about their class and the wider community of Mount Compass.      

“I think it’s made our kids become a bit more aware. They’d heard of Anzac Day and they knew what it was for, but they didn’t really understand it, so having the link to Sutton Veny, enriched them a bit more and given them a bit more of an understanding,” Ashleigh stated.

“I had a little girl in the year two class the other day come up to me and she’d written out all this information about her grandfather who was in the Air Force and had drawn up copies of his medals. I was able to show her pictures of the Battle of Britain memorial, there are some really interesting conversations from this.”

As she continues her Connecting Spirits journey, Ashleigh finds herself reflecting on the differences of each tour and how she has grown as a person, not just by age, but also through her changing perspectives of each tour. Having travelled overseas for the first time as a recent high school graduate and then again as a university student three years later, going back to the same battlefields now as a qualified teacher, opened Ashleigh’s eyes to the hell that was the First World War.

‘When travelling as a high school student or one who has just graduated, you rely very much on the group as a whole and in particular Julie Reece, who established the Connecting Spirits tours, to understand the emotional impact you feel. If travelling after some form of life experience, whether that is university, retirement or every stage of life in between, you are able to comprehend how to release your emotions in different ways. I think it’s just perspective, I think that’s the key word,” Ashleigh explained.

“It just changed my perspective on society and the world that we are in.  If this happened in this day and age, there would be outrage and the fact that a lot of people don’t know the extent of it, it is just like what if this were to happen again.”

For each tour Ashleigh commemorated different Australian soldiers and each commemoration has held significance to her, whether it is an ancestor of her own or completed on behalf of others. Before her most recent tour, she found the names of WWI soldiers on the Mount Compass memorial, extending the connection of the local school community to her time on tour.

Each of her commemorations were unique and by commemorating those soldiers on the memorial, she was able to undertake some further research of the Mount Compass community and understand what the region used to be like. While in Codford, in England, the group was able to visit the church where one Mount Compass soldier was married and for Ashleigh, being there was a truly powerful moment.

“The names were just on a memorial in Mount Compass and I didn’t even know they were in the First World War, until just out of curiosity I did some matching up of names,” Ashleigh said. “They were on the plaque which commemorated the first students that went to Mount Compass School, so it popped up purely by coincidence. I looked at a World War I list, then a school list and matched the names up.”

If going through the memories of her three completed Connecting Spirits’ tours, Ashleigh could be talking forever, however she does have several events that stand out, in her reflections of each tour. While each tour differed in the itinerary, all travel through France and Belgium, while on the recent tour, the group also visited the village of Sutton Veny in the English region of Wiltshire.

Ashleigh remembers standing beside her friend during her first Connecting Spirits tour, as she sang the Australian National Anthem under the Menin Gate in Ieper. On her second tour, she watched another student do the same and was able to reflect on her past experience, first being just slightly older than the high school students on her second tour.

“On the St Francis tour, watching those kids who were between 15 and 17, so sort of the same age as when I first went, watching them go through the same emotions and processing that I did on my first trip was really interesting and special,” Ashleigh says.

Ashleigh is a perfect example of how those who attend Connecting Spirits tours grow emotionally and continue to use the Connecting Spirits philosophy to share the remembrance of the servicemen and women to the wider community. 

Personal reflections by Julie Reece:

When you read Frankie's profile of her friend Ashleigh Martin and view the photos below, several things become very obvious about this young woman from Willunga and the contribution she has already made to Commemoration and Reconciliation. Ash is a fine young person who gives so much to others and is developing into a wonderful teacher and educator. She is able to effortlessly glide between people of various age groups, backgrounds and interests making solid links and connections along the way. Those qualities enable her to be an effective teacher and one who children look up to and easily engage with. She displayed those qualities right from the start when I first met her in 2011. Our school system and its young ones passing through it, are incredibly lucky to have Ms Martin helping and guiding them. Likewise, the Connecting Spirits project and its ever growing family has been enriched by all that Ash has given us over the years. May she return once more on a future Connecting Spirits tour to add yet another layer to her own treasure trove of learning! 

A teenager in the early days of her uni degree, Ashleigh embarked on her first tour in 2012.

                                                                               

Ashleigh's friendships crossed the generations! 

Ash, Felicia and Frankie look out over the English Channel towards France reflecting on their shared experiences while on tour.

In 2014 after her Youth Leadership role on that tour, Ash stayed with the McGinity family near Liverpool and undertook a two week student teaching placement in a local Catholic school . Uni SA acknowledged this as part of her studies and  included it in her degree.

One of the the high points of the tour for Ashleigh was the collaboration she had with the school at Sutton  Veny and their young students. 

After only one year in the teaching game, Ash is a born natural in this very demanding profession. She has found her calling. 

    

      

    

      

  

Some very special people make it possible for Australians to have closer connections to their ancestors who fought in World War One.

By Francesca Atkinson

Many Australians travel to the former western front battlefields in Europe to commemorate and remember those who served in the Australian Imperial Force during the World War I (WWI).

On each Connecting Spirits tour, the group often discovers people who are keeping the spirit of Australian soldiers alive and spend time together with them, learning more about the war.  Pierre Seillier is a French historian from Fromelles, a town that was occupied by Australian forces during July of 1916, who spends his time sharing the stories of courage, sacrifice and mateship the Australian diggers were known for. Mr Seillier said each day Australian travellers visit the Pheasant Wood Cemetery, where 250 British and Australian soldiers were buried, after a mass grave was exhumed in 2009.   

“Since the discovery of the mass grave and the building of the new cemetery, everyday at Fromelles, you can see a car, a van or a bus with Australian pilgrims.’ Mr Seillier said for the historians around Fromelles, it is important to acknowledge the sacrifice the soldiers made, while remembering how the Battle of Fromelles took so many lives.

“We have a great admiration for the Australian soldiers because they were all volunteers and mateship was very important in their army,” Mr Seillier explained.

Over the British Channel, in the small Wiltshire village of Sutton Veny, the 102 year old tradition of laying posies at the graves of Australian servicemen and women on Anzac Day each year, continues. Nicky Barnard is a Higher Level Teaching Assistant at Sutton Veny C of E Primary School and runs the Anzac Day service with the school children.

“Since 2002 I have been responsible for the school’s service, and it was at that 2002 service I realised it was an act in which the children were not really that involved,” Mrs Barnard said.

The village cemetery is the resting place of 168 WWI burials, including 141 Australian soldiers and two Australian nurses. After the war was over, those who were waiting to return home were sent to camps in the Wylye Valley and many caught the Spanish Flu, dying as a consequence.

The school holds significant connections to Connecting Spirits and RSL clubs in Australia. Its classrooms are named after cities or towns in Australia and New Zealand including Canberra, Darwin, Auckland, Geraldton, Nelson, Brisbane and the South Australian town of Elliston.

“We are in some way responsible to those families, travel is far easier now than it has ever been, but I do wonder how many families have been able to visit their ancestors final resting place,” she said.

“The children who attend this school are the future of Anzac Day here in Sutton Veny. The words "Lest We Forget" means to me exactly that: lest we share this information with the next generation, people will forget,” Mrs Barnard said.

Another overseas connection was established in 2018 when Julie Reece received an email from a volunteer at the Museum of Passchendaele. Gregory Verfaillie spotted the Connecting Spirits information cards at soldiers’ graves in Lijjsenthoek Cemetery and Buttes New British Cemetery, in Belgium. Gregory grew up in Passchendaele and now volunteers at the museum because he believes it is necessary to remember those who came from overseas to fight for the freedom the Belgian people have today.

“First of all, you Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and so may others came from the other side of the world to fight for our freedom, many of them never to return back home,” Mr Verfaillie reflected.

Mr Verfaillie has been busy working with the Museum of Passchendaele to create an exhibition called ‘Reflection 1914-1918, where the photos of volunteers will be on show. 

“With the museum, we are busy with a small exhibition about all the photographers of the museum, ‘Reflection 1914-1918’. This will be with a small part of our pictures; I have chosen the pictures of the first time that I met Julie at the grave of Private Neagle (Julie Reece’s great-uncle Private James Martin Clement Neagle),” Mr Verfaillie explained. 

Individuals like Pierre, Nicky and Gregory who remember the Australian servicemen and women in the ways that they do, make it possible for Australians on tours such as Connecting Spirits to commemorate their relatives in unique and special ways. We will always be grateful for their dedication and selfless contributions to keeping the memories alive of those who never came home from the Great War.

LEST WE FORGET…

Pierre Seillier at the 'Cobbers' memorial in Fromelles

'Cobbers' memorial, Fromelles

Our 'Froggy' mate Pierre. 

Pierre is a passionate historian and gives his time and skills freely to so many people. His commemorative work on 'his' soldiers is epic!

Gregory Verfaillie in Buttes New British cemetery, Belgium

Greg and his friend Frank Mahieu, are dedicated to helping those with relatives who died in WW1. 

Another  wonderful young man from Ypres, Gil, a friend of Frank Mahieu's, plays the bagpipes at for many commemorative occasions in the Ypres region. He is playing 'Waltzing Matilda' here at the oak sapling in the Polygon Wood of Peace that remembers Martin Neagle. 

Friendships born from the loss and tragedy of the Great War: Gregory Verfaillie, Julie Reece and Frank Mahieu

(Photo  credit: with thanks to Gunther Verhaverbeke, April 2019)

Greg and the 2019 CS group in Polygon Woods

Friends...

Sutton Veny primary school: Anzac Day 2019

The Anzac windows in the Sutton Veny chapel

The Anzac room in the SV school

Nicky Barnard, SV school and Anzac leader

Frank Lampard and Nicky discuss some of the many wonderful items in the school's collection.

Sophia Beevor presents a book to Nicky on WW1 Australian nurses for the Anzac collection.

Francesca's profile number 4: Frank Lampard OAM

Member of Veterans SA and the Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia brings Ngarrindjeri culture, knowledge and understanding to the 2019 Connecting Spirits Community Tour.

By Francesca Atkinson

Former schoolteacher Frank Lampard OAM of Ngarrindjeri and Kaurna descent joined Connecting Spirits, along with his wife Sandy, in the hope they would gain further insight into the World War One service of his cousins Private Cyril Spurgeon Rigney and Private Rufus Gordon Rigney. For many years the Connecting Spirits tours have held a strong connection to the Coorong towns of Meningie and Raukkan (Pt. McLeay), the town in which the soldiers grew up and where many of their relatives still live or have ties to today.

“I’m enjoying retirement and among other things, Sandy and I are able to take up opportunities to find out a little bit more about the history of Aboriginal participation, particularly in the First World War,” Frank said. “I guess that sort of comes out of my interest, which has almost become a passion of Veteran’s Affairs, specifically focused on Aboriginal Veterans.”

Frank was appointed a member of the 2019 Veterans Advisory Council in South Australia (Veterans SA), an organisation founded to support the well-being of South Australian veterans, which also advises the government of matters concerning veterans’ affairs, along with being a committee member of Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia.  

These positions are highly regarded by Frank who has previously undertaken many other public service roles within Aboriginal and Veterans affairs, most recently including a former appointment as the Acting Chief Executive of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Before joining Veterans SA as a committee member, Frank became involved with the Reconciliation movement in South Australia to create a memorial to the service of Aboriginal veterans. This monument acknowledges Aboriginal men and women who fought during times of war, recognises their service and is a place for Australians to gain a better awareness of Aboriginal veterans.   

“It was around 2007 or 2008, we actually recognised there didn’t appear to be much knowledge about the service of Aboriginal veterans. There wasn’t anything specifically to acknowledge them and so there was an Aboriginal woman who decided we would do something about that,” Frank explained.   “That woman just had to be, Marjorie Tripp. She was also the first Aboriginal woman to enlist and serve in the Australian navy and Marjorie was pulling people together, as she kind of unearthed them from her research, supported by some members Reconciliation SA. Her dream was put a memorial in place somewhere in the Torrens Parade Ground (in Adelaide).”

As we were part way through the 2019 Connecting Spirits tour, Frank explained how his involvement in veterans affairs is very personal because while he is a veteran himself, he is able to reflect and use his ties to the Aboriginal and veteran communities to remember and honour his younger brother, Laurence who fought in the Vietnam War. Ironically, the two brothers were 17 months apart in age, which is very similar to the age gap between the Rigney brothers.

Once the dedication to the new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial took place on 10^th November 2013, the original committee formed by Ms Tripp, decided to stay together and there they constructed a group known as the Aboriginal Veterans of South Australia (AVSA). The committee structured themselves very similarly to Reconciliation SA, in that, the organisation has Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal co-chairpersons.

“Marjorie Tripp approached me and said, would I join the committee she was putting together and of course I couldn’t help myself,” said Frank. “I just about broke my neck to get there though because, living in the back of my mind, is the loss of my younger brother Laurence. He enlisted around the time I got called up, he was younger than me and I sort of wanted his service to be recognised.”

Returning to the main reasons Frank and his wife joined the Connecting Spirits tour, he told of the few occasions his mother spoke of Cyril and Rufus Rigney, two cousins of his mother, but who are culturally known to Frank as his Uncles. Aboriginal culture is based on respect for elders and in some instances older members of the group are known as ‘Uncle or Aunty’, whether or not they are related in a way that many would see an aunt or uncle to be. 

Private Cyril Spurgeon and Private Rufus Gordon Rigney were two brothers from Point McLeay in South Australia, who sadly never made it home from Belgium after being killed and wounded in action. Rufus later succumbed to his wounds. Over 100 years later Cyril still has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper, while Rufus is buried in Harlebeke New British Cemetery, also in Belgium.    

“I am very proud to say they are related to my family and my mother actually mentioned them one or twice in my life, but I would have been pretty young in those days,” Frank outlined.  “The only other time I can remember speaking about them with her, was after I came home from National Service. We had a considerable conversation about my brother, Laurence because he enlisted and you can consider reasons why Rufus followed Cyril, they were fairly close and my younger brother, actually wanted to join me in the Army as well.”

 

The two Rigney brothers inspired Frank as they have with former members of Connecting Spirits tours, because in their community of Raukkan, the brothers are seen as heroes. The local church has a window dedicated to those in the community who served during World War I (WWI). They are seen to many members of the community as ‘Uncles’ due to the cultural aspect, suggesting those living in or who are originally from Raukkan, hold a significant amount of respect for the Aboriginal boys who went off to fight in the war.  

The entire 2019 group impressed Frank with their interest of Aboriginal service during WWI and in particular, the knowledge the group shared for Cyril and Rufus Rigney’s service, whether they were Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. By visiting the battlefields of WWI, the Connecting Spirits group was able to gain a clearer insight into what really happened in the countryside of France and Belgium from 1914 to 1918. No one can appreciate the gravity of the war just by completing Internet research and the Connecting Spirits tour takes an emotional, yet significant approach while touring former battlefields. 

“The thing that has stood out for me is that there is so much interest by everyone in the group and it’s given me the opportunity to spice it up a little with that cultural detail,” Frank stated. “The kind of issues of status in our wider community, on a political level if you like, were both Cyril and Rufus would have enjoyed a much stronger cultural participation in our community than I ever had. Being able to observe first hand where they actually served, must have been a huge shock for them to be called up in an environment they never quite fully understood, yet at the same time how we relate to country and that is earth is mother to us.”

As communities throughout Australia responded to the call of enlistment, Aboriginal servicemen enlisted for the war, to fight under the Australian flag and for the so-called ‘motherland’, Great Britain. Even though they were not respected as owners of the land and faced more discrimination back home, a known record of around just over 1000 Aboriginal men enlisted to fight in the war. The real number is expected to be much higher, as after 1915 it became harder for Aboriginal men to enlist and most were categorised to be exempt from service.

Those who did enlist are not known to have contemplated the cultural differences, which were evident in society at the time. They wanted to be loyal to their country and showed a great amount of sacrifice in doing so.

“To actually pay my deepest respects to them is pretty high on the agenda, a pretty high responsibility I had to take, and I feel from that,” Frank says.

“Their whereabouts and the mystery of their participation is a lot clearer to me and I fully understand the perils of what they would have experienced. At the same time though, not having them come back home, to be in that position to commemorate them, in some small way is the most important thing.”

Both Frank and his wife Sandy are glad they joined the Connecting Spirits tour, as they gained further insight into WWI and found further connections of interest to each of their extended family’s history. Frank in particular has been able to share his knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal service during WWI, while bringing the cultural significance of the Ngarrindjeri people to the entire group and other people they met along the way.

Departure day, Tuesday April 9, 2019 (Adelaide Airport)

Frank and Sandy Lampard, Pozieres, Somme (France)

Commemorations at Mouquet Farm, the site where Ngarrindjeri soldier Arthur Thomas Walker is believed to be K.I.A. 16th August, 1916.

Frank supporting Jo at her grandfather's grave.

Frank Lampard, Felicia Hartmann and Anyupa Giles with photo of Sandy Wilson. 

                                                            Sandy and Frank

Frank, Felicia and Anyupa at the Menin Gate where Cyril Rigney is remembered. 

Friendship...

The Ngarrindjeri flag flies proudly at the Harelbeke New British Cemetery where Rufus Rigney is buried.

Commemorating Pte. Rufus Gordon Rigney, Frank's direct relative. 

Emotions overflow...

Anzac Day, Codford UK- we remember Walter Gollan (43rd Battalion)  father of Sandy Wilson.

Codford CWGC cemetery, UK, Anzac Day Dawn Service 2019

Farewell...for now...