By JESSE GRAHAM
AT 11am on Tuesday, 19 July, a small group gathered in Lilydale to commemorate the life of Lilydale’s John James Purcell, who fought and died in the Somme Offensive 100 years ago.
The memorial service was held 100 years to the day since Purcell was last seen, when he charged over the top of his trench on 19 July 1916 during the Battle of Fromelles.
Lilydale RSL president Don Parsons joined Yarra Ranges Councillor Terry Avery to speak about Purcell’s life and his service, after being born in Lilydale in 1890.
After growing up in Lilydale, Purcell moved to Balaclava with his family, and enlisted in the AIF on 26 June 1915 – he was trained in Seymour, and embarked with the 8th reinforcements for the 8th Battalion on 15 September.
He was sent to Gallipoli in November, but was evacuated on 7 December, returning to Egypt and being transferred to the 60th Battalion.
After being charged and found guilty of ‘absenting himself without leave’, for which he was sentenced to 56 days field punishment and forfeiting five days’ pay, he was sent to France and the Battle of Fromelles, as part of the Somme Offensive.
A court of inquiry on 4 August 1917 declared Purcell as killed in action. Though his name does not feature on Lilydale’s war memorial, Purcell is one of many remembered at the Y Farm Military Cemetery in France.
School captains and principals from Lilydale Primary School and Bimbadeen Heights Primary School attended the memorial, and Mr Parsons laid a wreath at the cenotaph after the speeches.
He then recited The Ode, and the group paused for The Last Post in remembrance of Purcell and other fallen soldiers.
The memorial is one of many being held on the 100th anniversary of local soldiers’ deaths, at Lilydale, Wandin, Montrose, Mooroolbark and Coldstream/Yering’s war memorials.
Mount Evelyn and Lilydale’s RSLs are organising the ceremonies, with the next to be held on Wednesday 20 July, at 11am at Lilydale’s memorial to remember Stanley Lewis Robinson.
