By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA Valley soldiers killed in the Somme Offensive 100 years ago will have their stories told in a series of memorial services to be held in the coming months,
From Tuesday 19 July, memorial services will be held at war memorials in Lilydale, Montrose, Coldstream/Yering and Mooroolbark on the centenary of local soldiers’ deaths.
Historian Anthony McAleer said the ceremonies were being held to mark the centenary of the Somme Offensive – “What has been described as the worst 24 hours in Australian history”.
He said that Australian forces alone suffered more than 5000 casualties in one night during the Battle of Fromelles.
“That’s more than the Boer War, Korean War and Vietnam put together,” Mr McAleer said.
Mr McAleer said the decision to hold the services came about ahead of the centenary of Anzac Day last year, and was a way of telling the stories behind the names on each town’s memorial.
“Going back 100 years ago, everybody who lived in those towns knew who those names were – but there’s no detail to them now,” he said.
“What we wanted to do was recognise these fellows, commemorate them, but also to put more detail out there – when we do these ceremonies, we talk about some of them, read out a biography of them, what they did and where they came from.”
He said the Lilydale and Mount Evelyn RSLs had already been holding ceremonies of soldiers who died earlier in World War I on the centenary of their deaths, but that the Somme Offensive saw many local Diggers killed, and so ceremonies to commemorate each of them had been organised.
Family members and descendants of the soldiers, along with school students, have been attending ceremonies thus far, he said.
Mr McAleer said the large number of deaths in the Somme Offensive and its battles was “horrific”, and had an impact on the soldiers’ home-towns, like those in the valley.
“You can imagine just how devastating that was for communities like ours, when suddenly this amount of people was just wiped out,” he said.
The ceremonies will be held at 11am on the centenary of each soldier’s death at their town’s war memorial.
Tuesday 19 July
Robert John McKenna and John James Purcell – Lilydale.
Frank Allen Dixon – Wandin.
Wednesday 20 July
Stanley Lewis Robinson – Lilydale.
Monday 25 July
William John Hawkey – Lilydale.
Tuesday 26 July
William John Chauvin – Lilydale.
Thursday 28 July
Cecil Benjamin Farr – Mooroolbark.
Leopold Claude James Muir – Wandin.
Friday 5 August
George Stewart Brown – Lilydale.
Saturday 6 August
Claude Albert Charles Atkinson – Lilydale.
Tuesday 16 August
Edwin Rupert Poyner – Lilydale.
Thursday 18 August
Arthur Frederick Anderson and Thomas Morton – Lilydale.
Andrew Samuel Holland – Lilydale and Coldstream/Yering.
Thursday 1 September
Norman Hooke – Montrose.
Wednesday 21 September
Alfred Henry Niblett – Lilydale.
Sunday 16 October
Thomas Telson – Lilydale.
