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 to join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (Gallipoli Campaign), 12 April 1915.

Admitted to No 1 Australian Stationary Hospital, Lemnos, 19 April 1915 (herpes zoster); discharged, 22 April 1915.

Admitted to No 4 Australian Field Ambulance, Anzac, 30 June 1915, and discharged to duty the same day.

Evacuated to hospital, 6 July 1915; admitted to St George's Hospital, Malta, 16 July 1915 (debility); disembarked Alexandria, 1 August 1915.

Embarked for Gallipoli, 3 August 1915; rejoined 13th Bn, 10 August 1915.

Evacuated to hospital, 24 August 1915; admitted to No 1 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Mudros, 30 August 1915 (indigestion, teeth, and suspected enteric); transferred to No 3 Australian General Hospital, Lemnos, 31 August 1915; embarked for England, 14 September 1915; to Tooting Military Hospital, 27 September 1915 (enteric fever); discharged, 3 November 1915.

Admitted to No 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, 10 December 1915; transferred to Convalescent Hospital, Woodcote Park, Epsom, 6 January 1916; discharged, 12 January 1916.

At Depot, Weymouth, 18 February 1916.

To Perham Downs, 22 June 1916.

Taken on strength of 4th Australian Divisional Base Depot, Etaples, France, 26 July 1916.

Rejoined unit, 19 August 1916.

Killed in action, 30 August 1916.