Headstone honour for WWI Diggers
NINE Australian soldiers have finally been honoured with dignity in death – more than 100 years after they were killed in France.
They were among World War I soldiers found in a mass unmarked grave near Pheasant Wood in 2009 but were formally identified after an extensive decade- long DNA search.
Captain Ken Mortimer, Corporal Alfred Thompson, Private Henry Bell, Private William Boyce, Private Henry Gardner, Private Alexander McCulloch, Private Stanley Richard O’Donnell, Private James Smith and Private Claude Yeo were given the honour of a gravestone this week at a ceremony in Fromelles.
Capt Mortimer’s relative Judith Douthie, 62, spent years helping researchers find DNA to identify Capt Mortimer’s remains. She said she was relieved.
“I have his photograph sitting on the side board and I would talk to him and say ‘ I need to find you’,” Ms Douthie said. “Even though it was 100 years ago, this feels extremely close. I have all of his letters he sent to his mother. He had written to her every two or three days and she kept them all.”
Mortimer, who lived near Albury, was killed in July 1916.
The 20- year- old was leading a charge on German trenches in Fleurbaix, France, when his men were attacked from the side and behind. According to a witness account, he put his own safety second to his men.
The official account said: “The ground that ( Mortimer) would have had to cross to reach our trenches was under very heavy fire, but some who were wounded with him got back …. Informant cannot say how severe Capt Mortimer’s wound was as his great idea was to get his men back safely and he would not let any one stay to help him.”
There were 17 members of Mortimer’s family at the unveiling of his headstone, including 11- year- old Isabella Klein, one of his great, great nieces.