The men and boys of Woodside will be remembered: Anzac Day 2022

 

We will remember the Woodside boys

 

In the lead up to Anzac Day Julie Reece Tours will be focusing on those boys from Woodside that died in WW1 and were brothers. In previous blog posts the East and Clasohm brothers’ stories were shared. The Eglinton family lost three brothers, Clarence Roy, Thomas William and Laurence. Thomas is buried in Villers Bretonneux at Adelaide Cemetery, Laurence at Noreuil Australian Cemetery in France and Clarence Roy was never found and is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium. Each of their wartime stories will be featured in blog posts to follow over the next few weeks.

When the Connecting Spirits Community Tour resumes travel, hopefully this September, these Woodside bothers will all be remembered at the new ‘Brothers in Arms’ Memorial near Polygon Wood in Belgium. This fabulous memorial will be inaugurated on Sunday September 25, the week prior to our group due to visit the region. This will be a fitting location to commemorate the groups of brothers from my town.

 The origin of this new memorial goes back to the discovery of five sets of soldiers’ remains back in 2006 and from that point on the tenacious efforts of friend Johan Vandewalle in recognising the young Australians, resulted in this new memorial, 16 years later. The full story of Johan’s project is told on the website referred to below. The following extract from the website goes right back to where the story of the Hunter brothers John and Jim, began. Over the years our tour groups have witnessed the gradual development of the Brothers in Arms memorial and it will be a very special experience to finally visit and see the extraordinary life size bronze sculpture dedicated to the Hunter brothers. I have no doubt that it will become a location for many to visit when remembering the many families who lost more than one son. Thank you, Johan, and all involved for tireless efforts and passion to make this finally happen.

The next blog post will feature the Eglinton brothers who are listed on the Woodside Honour Board and whose story will be shared at the Brothers in Arms memorial in Belgium. 

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‘Finding the Zonnebeke five

https://www.brothersinarmsmemorial.info/’

 

This story is that typical “message in a bottle” story. Although it is all but typical. Never before did a message contain that great a story.

During road works to lay a new gas pipeline in the hamlet of Westhoek in 2006, Tom Heyman, operating the machine, suddenly stopped digging and called Johan Vandewalle, an amateur archaeologist. Tom was convinced that he had found human remains just beside the road, and immediately linked them to the battlefield that Westhoek once was. Johan rushed over and could only confirm that these remains had to be those of a World War I soldier. He contacted the police and the Mayor of Zonnebeke and got green light from Dieter Demey and Archeo 7 to gather a team and start excavating as soon as possible.

 

It would be an amazing experience for all of them. After clearing the first grave, they noticed another grave just next to the first one. And then another, and another, and another. In total 5 Australian soldiers were exhumed. The last Australian body, however, was to make an everlasting impression on all who were involved. This fifth body was that of Australian private John Hunter. In all, three of the five soldiers would be identified by DNA research.

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The body of John Hunter was not thrown in the grave like the other four bodies. Clearly this man had not been buried like the others, someone had taken great care in laying John Hunter to rest. Research led to the family in Australia, who confirmed that the story in the family was that John – or Jack as he was known in the family – had been buried by his younger brother Jim.

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When Johan uncovered John’s head, which was wrapped in his ground sheet, it was as if lightning struck. Johan looked straight in John eyes and with the sunlight in the right angle, Johan could clearly see the colour of John’s eyes. It was an instant moment, but it lasted long enough to be photographed. At the time only Johan experienced this awesome moment, but the photographs will certainly move generations to come.

The 2019 Connecting Spirits Tour group in front of the partially built memorial

Tour member from the 2017 tour group Kira, holds the bronze model of the memorial

Kira and Johan Vandewalle at the memorial site, 2017 .