Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial

The Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux is the main memorial to Australian military personnel killed on the Western Front during World War I. It is located on the Route Villiers-Bretonneux (D 23), between the towns of Fouilloy and Villers-Bretonneux, in the Somme département, France. The memorial lists 10,773 names of soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force with no known grave who were killed between 1916, when Australian forces arrived in France and Belgium, and the end of the war. The location was chosen to commemorate the role played by Australian soldiers in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux (24–27 April 1918).

Australian National Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
View of the memorial tower (left) and Cross of Sacrifice (right)
For Australian Imperial Force
Unveiled22 July 1938
Location49°53′12.76″N 02°30′45.97″E France
Designed bySir Edwin Lutyens
To the Glory of God and in memory of the Australian Imperial Force in France and Flanders 1916–1918 and of eleven thousand who fell in France and have no known grave
Statistics source: Cemetery details. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial consists of a tower within the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, which also includes a Cross of Sacrifice. The tower is surrounded by walls and panels on which the names of the missing dead are listed. The main inscription is in both French and English, on either side of the entrance to the tower. The memorial and cemetery are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

History of the memorial

Following the war, the commander of the Australian Corps, Lieutenant General Sir Talbot Hobbs chose the sites of several Australian memorials in Europe and proposed that a memorial to all of the Australian dead on the Western Front be built in France, in the Villers-Bretonneux area. The proposal was approved by the Australian government – still led by wartime Prime Minister Billy Hughes – in 1923. A competition to design the memorial was held in 1925. It was open only to Australian veterans and their parents; their entries were required to use only stone quarried in Australia. The competition was won by the Melbourne architect William Lucas. In 1929, the French government gave its approval to the project.

The Scullin government suspended the project in 1930, due to the Great Depression and the projected cost, as well as dissatisfaction with aesthetic elements of Lucas's design.[1] Following a 1935 visit to Australia by the head of the Imperial War Graves Commission, Sir Fabian Ware, a cheaper design was sought, using French stone, from Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Construction of the memorial took place in 1936 and 1937. It was unveiled on 22 July 1938 by King George VI, whose words were broadcast directly to Australia. Other dignitaries present included the French President Albert Lebrun, who also gave a speech, and the Australian deputy prime minister Earle Page. Accompanying the King was his wife Queen Elizabeth, whose brother was killed at the Battle of Loos. This memorial was the last of the great memorials to the missing of World War I to be built, and the Second World War broke out just over a year after its unveiling.[2] During the unveiling ceremony, the King closed his speech with the words: "They rest in peace, while over them all Australia's tower keeps watch and ward."[2]

Every year on 25 April, an Anzac Day Dawn Service is conducted at the memorial by the Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs. The service commences at 5.30am and is followed by community services in Villers-Bretonneux and Bullecourt.

The cemetery originally included 60 hornbeam trees, planted in 1928. These were removed in 2009 as they reached the end of their lives, and were replaced by new trees as part of plans for the centenary commemorations in 2018.[3]

The Sir John Monash Centre, an interpretive centre behind the Villers–Bretonneux Australian National Memorial, opened in April 2018.[4]

Notable Commemoratees
  • Private Thomas Cooke – New Zealand-born Australian Army VC recipient.[5]
  • Southern entrance pavilion to the cemetery
  • The Stone of Remembrance at the cemetery entrance
  • The Cross of Sacrifice and the tower in October 2007
  • The Cross of Sacrifice and the tower in May 2014[6]
  • Shelter forming the left wing of the memorial
  • Some of the 11,000 names of the missing dead on the memorial
  • The inscriptions in English and French either side of the memorial tower entrance
  • Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery viewed from the top of the tower in July 2008
  • Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery viewed from the top of the tower in April 2012[6]

Footnotes and references
  1. The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme (Gavin Stamp, 2007), p. 94
  2. Villers–Bretonneux, Australian National Memorial, Australians on the Western Front 1914–1918, Department of Veterans' Affairs and Board of Studies NSW – accessed 31 December 2009
  3. Day, Mark (14 December 2009). "Villers-Bretonneux plots stripped bare". The Australian. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  4. Crowe, David (24 April 2018). "'We must remember': PM opens $100m Monash centre in France". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  5. "Thomas Cooke". CWGC casualty record. Retrieved 19 December 2017.
  6. The original hornbeam trees planted in 1928 were removed in 2009.
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