Day Seven

Thousands of Poppies were placed here for the centenary

The memorial

The memorial

Australian Memorial Park

Designed by Peter Corlett, an Australian sculptor, the bronze stature depicts Sergeant Simon Fraser carrying a wounded man. The park was opened on the 5th of July 1998. The park commemorates the Australians killed during the Battle of Fromelles.

While we were at the park, thousands of knitted poppies were planted in the ground, one for every solider lost. This was done by the local people for the centenary of the battle.

Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery

The Rue-Petillion Military Cemetery is a "concentration" cemetery - that is to say that smaller cemeteries in the surrounding area were transferred here after the war. Many of the soldiers buried here were casualties that died at a dressing station near to the site, a place know as "Eaton Hall" during the war. Those buried here also include over a hundred soldiers which fell during the battle of Fromelles, 1916.

Pheasant Wood Cemetery; Source: http://www.visitbattlefields.co.uk

Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery

Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery is a concentration cemetery and the first to be produced in 50 years. The Cemetery was constructed between 2009 and 2010, after bodies were recovered from excavation work. The soldiers recovered were from the battle of Fromelles and some of them have been identified via DNA. 

Vimy Ridge Memorial

Vimy Ridge Memorial

Vimy Ridge Memorial is a memorial site dedicated to the Canadians that served and died in World War One. The site covers an area of the battlefield which the Canadians crossed. The memorial took eleven years to build.

Vimy Ridge is to Canada what Galipoli is to Australia. Its significance stems to the fact that during the battle of Vimy Ridge all four divisions of the Canadian army fought together. From the 9th to the 12th of April, 1917, the Canadian forces attacked the German front to capture the ridge line in order to gain high ground. The Canadian were successful, at the cost of 3,598 dead.

The monument and ground around it was beautiful, but solemn. The people around the site treated it with respect. It is hard to imagine the land of eastern France as it must have been one hundreds years, today the countryside is peaceful and green with life.

The Bullecourt Digger Memorial

The statue features an Australian solider gazing in the direction of the German trenches. Bullecourt was the location of the death of the solider I researched, Major Howell-Price. The following the the report, in full, I completed about his life:

Major Philip Llewellyn Howell-Price

Written By James Jackson

Philip Llewellyn Howell-Price (1894 - 1917) was a New South Wales born Major serving in the 1st Battalion of the Australian Infantry Force. Enlisting as a private on the 14th of September, 1914 he was quickly promoted to lieutenant before serving in Gallipoli and then the Western Front. Major Philip Llewellyn was killed in action in Belgium, 1917. The Howell-Price family saw six sons enlist, the youngest three of which were killed in battle. This sacrifice is well acknowledged in online sources.

Family and Early Life

Born to John and Victorian Isabel Virginia Howell-Price, Philip Llewellyn was the second youngest of six brothers to serve in the war. John and Isabel had sixteen children. John Howell-Price was a reverend and Welsh migrant that was vicar (priest) of St Silas's Anglican Church, Waterloo, Sydney. Philip was born in Mount Wilson, a small village in the Blue Mountains. Phillip was educated Kogarah High School (in a suburb of Sydney), this differs from two of his older brothers, Frederik and Owen, both of whom were sent to Windsor Grammar School (it appears this school is no  longer operating, from newspaper fragments found online it appears to be an all boy boarding school). Regardless, Philip followed his brothers’ Fredericks footsteps and worked as a bank clerk (with what was Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney now National Australian Bank). Phillip was unmarried with his next of kin in army paperwork being his father. Prior to the war Phillip served for two years in the senior cadets and five months in Field Artillery. These military qualifications contributed to his near instant promotion to second lieutenant when he enlisted in 1914.

Army service

Phillip was one of 52,561 Australian men who enlisted to serve in 1914. He was 20 years old when he was recruited to 1st Battalion, A.I.F and after four days he was commissioned to second lieutenant. His Battalion left for training in Egypt on the 18th of October and arrived on the 2nd of December the same year. His Battalion trained in Egypt and served in a defensive role of the Suez Canal before being deployed.

The 1st Battalion was there on the 25th of April, with Phillip likely in the second or third wave of the Gallipoli landings. It was the day after this that he was promoted to Lieutenant proper. Phillip and the Battalion participated in the battle of Lone Pine, in which 2277 of his comrades were killed in wounded. Numerous sources claim that Phillip was mentioned in dispatches due to his service in Lone Pine, I was unable to find these correspondences. During the battle he was wounded and spent the following three months recovering before re-joining his old unit and shortly after was withdrawn to Egypt as Gallipoli was evacuated.

It was in Egypt before he deployed to France that he was promoted to captain on 28 January 1916. He arrived in Marseillies, France on the 28th of March. Phillip was awarded the Distinguished Service Order after he led a raiding party in Armentières that June. His Battalion fought in the battle of Pozières the same month, although I could find no record of his involvement was found. The month following his decoration Phillip fought in the battle of the Somme. After leave to England in February 1917 he was injured in the battle of Bullecourt and was then assigned to a non-combative post in the 1st ANZAC division. His brother, Richmond also fought and was wounded in Bullecourt. Richmond died from his wounds and was posthumously awarded the Military cross. While in the 1st ANZAC division Phillip was awarded the Military cross and was promoted to Major.

Phillip’s re-joined his old Battalion in the Battle of Broodseinde; this sub-battle of the greater conflict of Passchendaele was Phillips last battleground. Now 23, promoted from private to major, Major Philip Llewellyn Howell-Price died in an enemy artillery bombardment on the 4th of October, 1917. He had no last will or testament, and his belongs were, quote: “10 Hankerchiefs, 14 Collars, 2 Ties,  1 Belt, 1 Safety Razor, 1 Hodall [bag], 2 Shirts, 1 Looking Glass, 1 S.D Tunic.” From my research it appears he left no diary, and his letters although documented are not avalible online. Major Philip Llewellyn Howell-Price’s name can be found on the Honour Role of his 1st Battalion. Major Howell-Price body was not recovered. Major Howell-Price, along with 6177 of his comrades with no known graves are commemorated in the Menin Gate Memorial.

Conclusion

Evidently an intelligent and courageous man, his potential was clear to his superiors which resulted in his rapid promotions. Major Howell-Price proved himself a natural leader on the western front and was awarded the Military Cross and DSO accordingly. His many wounding did not break his resolve and each time he recovered he returned to the front, even requesting to be transferred from a staffing squad back to his old Battalion, proving not only his loyalty but his bravery. I will never know who Major Philip Llewellyn Howell-Price truly was, but what I have learned about him makes me believe that he was someone to look up to and that he demonstrates all the ANZAC values we venerate today.