Reginald Harrington's Journey of Remembrance: Blog Post 5

 Onto the battlefields...

The last three days the group have been immersed in the narrative of the Somme battles and commemorations of our relatives and those of our broader local networks, have been the centre of our journey. The battles at Villers Bretonneux, Hamel, and across the valley to Albert, Thiepval, Mouquet Farm, Pozieres and Dernacourt were explained in detail by our battlefields expert, Rod Bedford. We visited many key sites including the chateau at Bertangles where Monash was knighted in the field. The evidence of the war still leaves its traces with the landscape revealing many of the old trench lines, craters and occasional shell casing or other bits of the 'iron harvest'. One of the most extraordinary sites were the ancient caves at Nours where thousands of examples of graffiti scratched into the rock by the WW1 soldiers, can be viewed underground.  (a separate post will follow about this site).

Over a century ago this landscape was a very different place, one that Reginald Harrington describes in some detail in his letters to his wife Edith as he recalls his first experiences on the Somme :

'4th June 1917:

We travelled by train in what we call at home 'box trucks'. We lived in them for 3 days and used to get off and light fires alongside the track and boil our dixies. The line was crowded with trains so far as I could see...there were trains...trains...miles of them. Gradually we reached Albert  our base and an air fight was going on. The air just seemed alive with shells bursting around some planes, the Huns had only an hour or so before the station and there was mess everywhere.

We marched out to our billets at Dernancourt and ...then we moved up further to the rear in motor buses. I have never seen so many and at night you could see the lights twinkling for miles. 

The roads were fearful , just a deep slush up and over your ankles. All this part of the country was just riddled with shell holes and only old trenches and broken wire, some where the lines have been.

Then comes Bullecourt, that graveyard of Australian soldiers...Bullecourt will be a painful name in thousands of Australian homes . It was by far the worst bit of hill they have come to yet.'

Albert - the famous golden Madonna the troops nicknamed Fanny Durak after the Australian Olympic diver.

Shell casings  are commonplace on the Somme - known as  the 'Iron Harvest'

Rod Bedford explaining the nature of trench warfare at Beaumont Hamel, a Canadian site.

The Digger memorial at Bullecourt

Commemorating Ngarrindjeri soldier Arthur Walker at Mouquet Farm. 

(All photos taken by Julie Reece, September 2022)

The Woodside boys will be remembered: Brothers in Arms (2)

The Eglinton brothers in Arms: Thomas William (1672) 

The second of the Eglinton brothers to be featured in the lead up to 2022 Anzac Day is Thomas William, service number 1672. Thomas was born in Forest Range and his mother Elizabeth was originally listed as his next of kin, but this was changed on his service record to his wife Florence. Thomas was a gardener and enlisted on 29 February 1916.  He was 30 years of age, 5 and a half feet tall, had blue eyes and dark hair. His nominated religion was Church of England.

 After only 6 weeks of training, he departed from Adelaide on the A60 ‘Aeneas’ on the 11^th of April 1916 and headed for Egypt with the newly formed 50^th Battalion. On arrival to the port of Suez on 14 May, he was admitted to hospital with measles. Unfortunately, Thomas was plagued with illness and hospitalisations for the whole period of his time in Europe with a range of medical conditions including influenza, boils, jaundice and gunshot wounds.

He finally departed from Egypt headed for the western front via England on 18 November 1916. His time on the front lines in France was brief as not long after joining his unit he was again hospitalised with influenza and in December returned to England via Boulogne where he was treated in a number of hospitals on the Salisbury Plains. Over the period of late 1916/17, the troops endured the worst winter on record and the suffering endured in the trenches was compounded by the horrific cold.  During this period, Thomas spent 3 months in the UK until he returned to France once more to re-join his unit on 20 March 1917.

At the start of 1917, the 50^th battalion was engaged in ongoing activity on the Somme with major battles in Noreuil during March and April. Thomas was on the front lines for less than a month during these battles and on 2 April was wounded with a gunshot would to the leg.  Once more he returned to England on 7 April from Boulogne and spent 5 months recuperating.

At the end of September, he was to return to the field in time for the 3^rd battle of Ypres including the notorious Battle of Passchendaele. On 6 October Thomas William Eglinton re-joined his unit to survive for 7 months. He was killed in action on 9^th May 1918 in the Villers Bretonneux region. The 50^th battalion were part of the allied forces that recaptured this French village on Anzac Day 1918 and to this day the community of Villers Bretonneux have never forgotten the Australians. The village school remembers the Australian troops with a sign in their schoolyard stating… ‘Never Forget Australia’.  Thomas is buried in the Adelaide Cemetery on the edge of the village, the town where the Dawn Service is held on Anzac Day at the National Australian Memorial to the 11,000 missing Australians on the Somme.

This year’s Connecting Spirits Community tour group will visit his grave and share his story and that of his brothers at the ‘Brothers in Arms’ memorial next to Polygon Wood in Flanders. Rest in Peace dear Thomas .

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY MAL JURGS:

'After the battles of 1916 in the Somme, the German Army withdrew to the Hindenburg Line in March and April of 1917, followed closely by the British Army. The Germans used fortified villages as defensive positions to hold off the Allies, including Noreuil. It was here on the 2nd April that the 50th Battalion engaged in battle during which Pte. Thomas William Eglinton was wounded.' 

 (Mal Jurgs, Principal of Coomandook Area School, has co-managed 'Connecting Spirits' since its inception in 2006. When our groups tour, Mal is our chief guide on the battlefields working in collaboration with Rod Bedford. His ongoing leadership and contributions to CS, are the foundation of all we do. Thanks Mal. )

1. Thomas William  EGLINTON (1672)

Photo sourced from : 'Hurcombe's Hungry Half Hundred', FREEMAN, R.( 1991) pge. 157.

2. Adelaide Cemetery, Villers Bretonneux: burial place of Thomas

(Photo credit: Julie Reece)

3. Ecole Victoria, the local Villers Bretonneux school 

(Photo credit: Julie Reece) 

4. The fields of the Somme looking over the Villers Bretonneux cemetery from the Australian National Memorial to the 11,000 missing Australians  lost with no known grave

Photo credit: Julie Reece. 

 

 

Do not forget Australia….

Day two on the Somme and the weather gods were on our side today. The Somme was just glorious...brightly bathed in spring sunshine made a perfect backdrop for our emotional roller coaster. 

Our first commemoration was in Adelaide cemetery at Villers Bretonneux where Sophie told the story of a young Findon man, Ralph Drummond. The impact of this experience on young ones like Sophie is always moving and today was no exception. No Australian visitor can visit this village without seeing that iconic sign at Ecole VICTORIA .....'Do not forget Australia '....symbolising the close bonds formed between France and Australia because of the war. 


From there we made our way to the Australian national memorial that dominates that part of the landscape. Gordon Rigney, Francis Varcoe and George Grinter are just three of the 11,000 Australians whose names adorn the memorial to the missing. ...men with no known grave. ...'Known Unto God'. Our group were so fortunate today to have a friend of Mal Jurgs with us who played The Last Post to complete our ceremony. Despite the expectation that many tour groups will come to Villers Bretonneux, we had this spiritual place to ourselves. I don't think that will be the case in a week or so.  
The final part of the day after lunch at Hamel, at Heath cemetery belonged to Kiera Walker a wonderful young student who proudly shared the stories of three indigenous men one her own direct relative Thomas Walker and two famous Military Medal winners Harry Thorpe and Reginald Rawlings. To all who did commemorations today...thank you for your dedicated tributes.

APRIL 11, 2015 Commemoration on the Somme

Ngarrindjeri Anzac remembered.

Saturday April 11…today we began the process of immersing the group into the tragic story of the First World War and no better place to start but on the open spaces of the Somme valley. 

Jackie Bedford would be with us for this sector of the tour expertly and passionately recounting this
massive narrative. Our sunny spring days were replaced by and cool windy conditions which stayed with us all day. The famous locations associated with loss and grief such as Pozieres, Thiepval, Mouquet Farm, Lochnagar crater were our focus.

 However as often happens on these tours, an unexpected and powerful moment drew us tightly together. …and this was because of a fine young man, Trae Rigney.

Proudly representing his Ngarrindjeri people, family and community, Trae moved us all to tears with his heartfelt and eloquently delivered commemoration to his Ngarrindjeri soldier Arthur Walker. Here in front of our group was all that Connecting Spirits has been and achieved over the last decade.

 For Mal Jurgs co founder of the CS project and myself, it was a special moment one we will both treasure. Thank you Trae.