Digger’s proper plaque

THE dedication of a headstone at the Cornelian Bay Cemetery has brought back a flood of memories for Judith Bowden, 83, of Bothwell, and her brother Greg Taylor, 81, of Jericho.

Mrs Bowden said she had been deeply moved when she saw an advertisement in the Mercury Classifieds, mentioning Private Sydney Percy Allison, a beloved teacher at Elderslie Primary School during the 1940s.

“It brought tears to my eyes to see it,’’ she said.

She and her brother decided that they should go to yesterday’s dedication, a part of the Headstone Project that has identified 320 previously unmarked graves of World War I servicemen at the Cornelian Bay Cemetery, and erected headstones.

Percy, who returned home from France in 1919 after being shot twice during the war and resumed his teaching career, was among servicemen whose new headstones were dedicated at the cemetery’s chapel.

Mr Taylor, who started at Elderslie school in 1942 and had remained under Percy’s influence for five years, said the teacher had provided him with a lifetime of benefits.

“He gave everybody wonderful general knowledge,’’ he said.

Other soldiers commemorated yesterday: Sydney Anderson, Walter Joseph Atwill/Atwell, James Alexander Budgeon, Charles Henry Clark, Bertram Curtis, Charles Vernon Fergusson, Albert Edward Harris, Arthur Charles Jones, Hugh Tasman Lord, Leslie Ernest Maher, Edgar George McGuire, John Charles Molloy, Owen George Payne, Leopold Frank Priest, aka Frank Onslow, Raymond George aka John Prouse, Hector Ross Read, Carlton Anstey Webb, Frederick John Williams, Arthur Cecil Wright, Joseph Hercules Will and Charles Henry Davies.