Connecting Spirits Community Tour 2017: Looking back ...number 2

'THEY HAD NO CHOICE'

The 2017 Connecting Spirits Community Tour introduced a number of new sites and areas of focus one including the acknowledgement of the role of animals in war over the years. Our youngest member Charlotte Treloar who is an accomplished horse rider, did a brilliant effort with her research into the part played by many different animals in W.W.1 including two very famous Australian horses. As part of her moving and beautifully presented commemoration to the horses of war, she read the poem by 'Banjo' Paterson called 'The Last Parade'. As she read A.B Paterson's words in front of the Hyde Park memorial to all animals of war, all of us added another layer to our knowledge of the Great War. Thank you to the youngest member of our group Charlotte Treloar. 

THE LAST PARADE by A.B (Banjo) Paterson

With never a sound of trumpet,

With never a flag displayed,

The last of the old campaigners

Lined up for the last parade.

Weary they were and battered

Shoeless and knocked about:

From under their ragged forelocks

Their hungry eyes looked out.

And they watched as the old commander

Read out to the cheering men

The Nation's thanks, and the orders

To carry them home again.

And the last of the old campaigners,

Sinewy, lean and spare-

He spoke for his hungry comrades;

'Have we not done our share?'

'Starving and tired and thirsty

We limped on the blazing plain;

And after a long night's picket

You saddled us up again.

'We froze on the wind-swept kopjies

When the frost lay snowy-white

Never a halt in the daytime,

Never a rest at night!

'We knew when the rifles rattled

From the hillside bare and brown,

And over our weary shoulders

We felt warm blood run down.

'As we turned for the stretching gallop, 

Crushed to the earth with weight;

But we carried our riders through it-

Sometimes, perhaps, too late.

'Steel! We were steel to stand it-

We that have lasted through,

We that are old campaigners

Pitiful, poor and few.

'Over the sea you brought us,

Over the the leagues of foam:

Now we have served you fairly

Will you not take us home?

'Home to the Hunter River,

To the flats where the lucerne grows;

Home to the Murrumbidgee

Runs white with the melted snows.

'This is a small thing surely!

Will you not give command

That the last of the old campaigners

Go back to their native land?'

They looked at the grim commander,

But never a sign he made.

'Dismiss!' and the old campaigners

Moved off from their last parade.

Of the 100,000+ horses that left Australian shores, only one was brought home 'Sandy' : the horse of Major General Sr William Bridges. There has been a common mythology that all the horses left behind were shot. This is not accurate as their fate was quite varied. Many were sold on to the locals and the British Army however those that  were deemed to sick and unfit were destroyed. Despite this the end result for these loyal and hard working animals of war must have created many layers of grief for their military masters. 

And as the memorial in Hyde Park in London so poignantly states:

THEY HAD NO CHOICE...

Connecting Spirits Community Tour 2017: looking back...(number 1)

The Menin Gate and the last Post Association.

For all who travel to Ieper (Ypres...or 'Wipers' as pronounced by the British soldiers) in search of ancestors who lost their lives in the Great War, there is no site more significant than the Menin Gate. It is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields waking past the famous Menin Gate lions. The lions were given to the newly built Australian War Memorial in 1936 and this year returned on loan to Ypres as part of the centenary commemorations for the Battle of Passchendaele. 

(Go to the Youtube   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsgHI1pS9o0 report ) 

The Menin Gate commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

Building of the memorial began in 1923 and on 24 July 1927, and was unveiled by Field Marshal Lord Plumer. Soon after its completion the memorial became a place of pilgrimage for veterans, relatives and visitors to the battlefields.

Every evening since 1928, at 8 p.m. buglers sound the Last Post. The ceremony has become part of the daily life of Ieper and traffic is stopped from passing through the memorial. Only during the German occupation of the Second World War was the ceremony interrupted. At that time, it was held at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, England.

The idea of performing the Last Post was first conceived by the Belgian Pierre Vandenbraambussche, Superintendent of the Ieper Police. The Last Post Committee (now Association) was formed in 1928 of local volunteers and has remained ever since. By contacting the Last Post Association at www.lastpost.be  individuals and groups can submit an application to take part in the nightly ceremony by either reading the Exhortation, Laying a Wreath, or reading the Kohima Epitah to conclude the ceremony. 

Since 2001 when I ran my first school commemorative project at Mount Barker High School  (Remembrance 2001) through to the inaugural Connecting Spirits Community Tour of this year, many of our group members have taken part in the Last Post ceremony. Several of our Connecting Spirits students have also sung the Australian national anthem under these hallowed walls. This year I was asked by Benoit Mottrie to read the Exhortation, a privilege I will always treasure. If you are looking for a very special place to stay while in Ieper (Ypres) I can recommend the Menin Gate House owned by Benoit. Three separate apartments command prime views of the memorial and inside the main apartment, you will be immersed in the history of the Great War and its most famous memorial. 

And finally as our group traversed the former battlefields, the poetry of the day from various poets was shared. The following poem by soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon, 'On passing the Menin Gate', is a powerful and erudite account of this extraordinary W.W.1 memorial. 

Lest We Forget....

On Passing the New Menin Gate, by Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, The unheroic Dead who fed the guns? Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate, - Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones? Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own. Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp; Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone, The armies who endured that sullen swamp. Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride 'Their name liveth for evermore' the Gateway claims. Was ever an immolation so belied As these intolerably nameless names? Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

Contact Benoit at info@meningatehouse.com-www.meningatehouse.com

SOURCES: CWGC website & Last Post Association website

PHOTOS: Taken by Julie Reece

Connecting Spirits ...80 years on brother and sister reunited

In 2011 I ran my first adult battlefields tour in the first year of my retirement from a long career in the classroom. A random meeting at a small Adelaide hills school just a few weeks prior to departure, would introduce me to a wonderful woman Jo Kirlew,  who would become one of my dearest friends.  We were both doing a day of relief teaching and at recess we started  chatting. The conversation came around to what we were both up to and when I told Jo about my Connecting Spirits tour,  she became very emotional. She recounted the story of her grandfather Walter Kirlew who was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  I suggested that I include a visit to  Walter's grave on her behalf and from that point a very special story and friendship unfolded. At Walter's grave in Fricourt a few weeks later,  I read out the words that Jo wanted to share about her lost grandfather and as we always do with our Connecting Spirits commemorations,  small tributes and messages were left at the grave. One card had my email address on it and this created a whole new chapter for us both.
I was contacted by  a man from the UK who was also related to Walter, a relative Jo knew nothing of. Jo soon joined the next tour group and made her own pilgrimage to France. Here the story took yet another turn.

The two distant relatives  met in Somerset, the home of Jo's family and a very poignant discovery was made by the two second cousins. Jo learnt from  Alan that her father Joe Kirlew had been married before he married Jo's mother and there had been a little baby son born to the couple...a half brother Jo had no knowledge of. Both the mother and the newborn tragically died in childbirth and were buried in an unmarked grave in Hull cemetery. Jo visited that grave on yet another one of her tours and saw for the first time the resting place of her baby half brother she never knew. On her return home, Jo arranged for a special plaque to be made for the grave in Hull and today she will return once more to complete the circle of this special Connecting Spirits journey. On Wednesday this week we meet up with the 2017 Connecting Spirits Community tour group to share more emotional and significant moments with a new CS family.  Stay tuned for our recounts as once more my friend Jo Kirlew will stand at the grave of her grandfather Walter Kirlew.

Farewell Positano and off to Puglia

Our 5 days in Positano had come to an end and it was time to repack, load up the expanding cases and make the gut busting climb up the steps for the last time.  As we struggled with all the bits and bobs of our various shopping exploits,  the young muscly porters carried our cases on their shoulders up the steps with extraordinary ease while we were all left to puff up each tortuous section.  Our calf muscles will be like steel by the end of the tour!
It was an early start and had to be up that hill ready to meet our driver Peppie  by 7.30 am. The drive across Italy to the very different region of Puglia would be a long one so a couple of stops broke the journey.  At 10.30 we had a tour of the La Strega distillery in Benevento the digestivo famous worldwide for its bright yellow colour and  unique flavour.  Strega was developed in 1860 by father-son team of Carmine Vincenzo Alberti and Giuseppe Alberti.  Over the years the company became well known for its colourful and artistic advertising including fabulous posters designed in 1906 in the art nouveau style.  Once again it was time to shop and some very special treats were loaded up into our already packed vehicle.  While in Benevento Rosa had a special though very brief reunion with her cousin Olga and her children including lots of kisses for their much loved Australian cousin. After a very yummy lunch it was back to the freeway for the final stretch through the many kilometres of olive groves and vineyards.
The history of Puglia is one of serial  conquest, subjugation and settlement.  Its climate and more importantly, its geographical position have always made it a favourable place to settle,  or at least control. Our home for the next 6 days would be in the trulli of Alberobello.  The trulli (plural of one trullo) , the characteristic cone shaped roof houses of Alberobello make up one of the 53  UNESCO World Heritage sites in Italy. Originally constructed using dry stone building techniques without mortar, many of these unique settlements have been restored for either permanent habitation or tourist accommodation.  No 100 steps up and down the side of a cliff to get to the front door here! !!
However on arrival after some drenching rains and storms we arrived late to blacked out dwellings due to power failures! !! They must have heard we were from South Australia! ! However with the aid of a candle and the light from my mobile phone,  the amazing Rosa Matto was still able to concoct a meal to feed the hungry group. Wine and Strega eased the introduction to Alberobello and in the end we turned it into a bit of a picnic in the dark!  Sleep came quickly!