The AIF Project

Villers-Bretonneux is a village about 15 km east of Amiens. The Memorial stands on the high ground ('Hill 104') behind the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Fouilloy, which is about 2 km north of Villers-Bretonneux on the east side of the road to Fouilloy.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is approached through the Military Cemetery, at the end of which is an open grass lawn which leads into a three-sided court. The two pavilions on the left and right are linked by the north and south walls to the back (east) wall, from which rises the focal point of the Memorial, a 105 foot tall tower, of fine ashlar. A staircase leads to an observation platform, 64 feet above the ground, from which further staircases lead to an observation room. This room contains a circular stone tablet with bronze pointers indicating the Somme villages whose names have become synonymous with battles of the Great War; other battle fields in France and Belgium in which Australians fought; and far beyond, Gallipoli and Canberra.

On the three walls, which are faced with Portland stone, are the names of 10,885 Australians who were killed in France and who have no known grave. The 'blocking course' above them bears the names of the Australian Battle Honours.

After the war an appeal in Australia raised £22,700, of which £12,500 came from Victorian school children, with the request that the majority of the funds be used to build a new school in Villers-Bretonneux. The boys' school opened in May 1927, and contains an inscription stating that the school was the gift of Victorian schoolchildren, twelve hundred of whose fathers are buried in the Villers-Bretonneux cemetery, with the names of many more recorded on the Memorial. Villers-Bretonneux is now twinned with Robinvale, Victoria, which has in its main square a memorial to the links between the two towns.

War service: Western Front

Embarked Sydney, 13 May 1916; disembarked Plymouth, 9 July 1916.

Admitted to No 1 Australian Dermatological Hospital, Bulford, 2 August 1916 (venereal disease); discharged, 17 August 1916; total period of treatment for venereal disease: 16 days.

Found guilty, 4 September 1916, of conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline in that he smoked on parade: awarded 3 days' confined to barracks.

Found guilty, 14 October 1916, of being absent without leave from early morning parade: awarded 3 days' confined to barracks.

Proceeded overseas to France, 22 November 1916.

Wounded in action, 7 June 1917; admitted to No 9 Australian Field Ambulance, 7 June 1917 (gunshot wound, arm); transferred to St John's Ambulance Brigade Hospital, Etaples, 8 June 1917; to England, 10 June 1917; to No 1 Southern General Hospital, 11 June 1917; to No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, 25 June 1917; discharged, 20 July 1917, and marched into No 2 Command Depot, Weymouth, the same day.

Marched into No 1 Command Depot, Perham Downs, 11 September 1917.

Marched into Overseas Training Bde, Longbridge Deverill, 17 September 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 14 October 1917; marched into 3rd Australian Divisional Base Depot, Rouelles, 15 October 1917.

Proceeded to unit, 19 October 1917; rejoined 36th Bn, Belgium, 22 October 1917.

Promoted Temporary Corporal, 6 November 1917.

Promoted Corporal, 17 January 1918.

Detached to Divisional School, 17 February 1918; rejoined unit, 23 February 1918.

On leave to Paris, 17 March 1918; rejoined unit, 1 April 1918.

Posted as missing in action, 4 April 1918.

Now, 20 April 1918, reported as 'Killed in Action, 4 April 1918'.