Every year on Anzac Day we remember those who have given their lives for their country. Twenty Saints have been identified as having fought in World Wars and failed to return. All were young men who heard the call to arms, enlisted and then proceeded overseas to fight for their country. They did not return to their families and they did not return to their friends or the Saints, the Club for which they played.

This Anzac day I look at Fromelles, which has been a main focus of attention over the past 12 months. One Saint was killed in action at Fromelles. It is possible that he is one of those who we have been reading about who were interred by the Germans in mass graves at Pheasant Wood. This Anzac Day, I will not only focus on Fromelles, but also pay tribute to all those Saints who have given their lives for their friends and country.

The Ode

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Fromelles. Western Front, France

Hugh McDonald Plowman. Captain, 60th Battalion AIF- 26 Games for the Saints 1910 - 1912.
Hugh was killed in action on 19/20 July 1916 in France aged 27, in a battle that would eventually find its place in modern Australian history. This was largely a forgotten battle until recent years when a number of historians, writers and researchers brought it to the attention of the Australian public.

“Fromelles may well be the most tragic battlefield of Australia’s history” (Les Carlyon)

At Fromelles, in a 24 hr period 1299 Australians were killed in action, 314 of those killed were in Hugh Plowman’s 60th battalion. Hugh was born in March 1889. He was a good all round sportsman and in his late teens he played first grade cricket with Prahran and VFA football for Brighton. He made his VFL debut for the Saints in Round 5, 1910 against Essendon.

After playing for St Kilda he joined the AIF with the rank of Corporal in 1915. After a short period of officer training he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in July 1915. He was later promoted to Captain while in France. In July 1916 Hugh was a Captain in the 60th Battalion part of an Australian force made up of the 4th and 5th Divisions AIF. In overall command of Australians were Generals White and Birdwood. The commander of Hugh’s brigade was Brigadier General H.E (Pompey) Elliott.

Lieutenant-General Richard Haking, Commander of the 11th British Corps had put a plan in place to attack the German trenches at Fromelles. He was no stranger to such a plan having unsuccessfully committed British troops to similar attacks with devastating results.

The Australians were set a task to attack an area known as the Sugarloaf salient south of Armentiers. Pompey Elliot believed this attack was at a grave risk of disaster and although Generals White and Birdwood agreed they were unable to convince the British General and his superiors Generals Gough and Haig to cancel the attack. After two days of delay the Australians attacked the salient manned by the 6th Bavarian reserve. The Australians met a withering tempest of machine gun and rifle fire that decimated their numbers. Lines of Australians went over the top never to return. In the 5th Division, 35 officers were hit, half mortally.

Hugh Plowman is presumed to have died in No Man’s Land, although there were conflicting reports. Soldiers from his battalion variously reported him as killed by machine gun fire, wounded and taken prisoner, or mortally wounded and crawling back to the lines. It is therefore possible that he is one of the fallen interred by the Germans following the battle and now the subject of the recovery of Australian remains from Pheasant Wood. Whatever the truth of the matter he has no known grave like many of his comrades. He is remembered at VC Corner, Australian Cemetery Memorial just outside the village of Fromelles.

Following the battle the scenes in the Australian trenches were unequalled in the history of the AIF. In one night on 19 /20 July 1916 Australia lost 5533 men killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

The Honour Roll
World War 1

Gallipoli
Claude Terrell Crowl. Private 8th Battalion Australian Army - 3 games for the Saints in 1911.
Louis Gordon Holmes. Captain 3rd Infantry Brigade HQ, Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 1 game for the Saints 1910.
Arthur Edward Caldwell. Private 4th Battalion Australian Infantry - 8 games for the Saints in 1909.

Pozieres
John Preston Walker- (Jack Walker), Sergeant, 8th Battalion, Infantry A.I.F. 4 games for the Saints, 1910-1911.
James (Jim) Farnan, Private 46th Battalion Infantry AIF, 1 game for the Saints 1899.

Ypres/ Menin Road, Belgium
Herbert Dean O’Connell. Corporal 60th Battalion AIF, 2 games for the Saints in 1908.

Bullecourt France
William Charles Madden. , L/Cpl 22nd Battalion AIF, 26 games for the Saints 1908-1909.

The Somme
Patrick McGuinness, Private 51st Battalion AIF, 1 game for the Saints 1901.

Prisoner of War, Died of wounds in a Bavarian Field Hospital, Lille France.
Harold C Parker 2nd Lt 37th Battalion AIF, 3 games for the Saints in 1911.

In the Air
Ralph Robertson - Second Lieutenant Royal Flying Corps, and 8th Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, 14 games for the Saints 1899- 1900.

World War 2

Tobruk
Jack A Shelton - Lieutenant 2/24 Infantry Battalion- 28 games for the Saints 1926, 1928 and 1929, 7 games for South Melbourne 1930.

Prisoner of War, Burma
William Downie - Private 105 General Transport Company, 15 Games for the Saints 1933. 54 Games for Footscray 1929-32.

New Guinea
Ross William (Bill) Hudson- Lance Corporal 51 Australian Field Company, 5 games for the Saints 1942.

Tarakan Borneo
Harold W.J Comte- Private 2/24 Australian Infantry Battalion, 104 games for the Saints 1930- 1937.

Balikpapan Borneo
Paul Bell - (Alfred William Paul Bell). Lance Corporal 2/5 Australian Commando Squadron, 15 games for the Saints 1937-1938.

In the Air, RAAF.
Stuart Patrick King - Flying Officer 20 squadron Royal Australian Air Force, 43 games for the Saints 1931-1933.
Beresford Stanley Reilly - Pilot Officer 454 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, 2 games for the Saints 1938, 8 games Nth Melbourne 1935 to 1936 and 3 games for Melbourne in 1937.
Robert Barnes Flegg- Warrant Officer Royal Australian Air Force, 70 Squadron,18 games for the Saints 1941.

On Active Service Australia
Wallace Hickford Mills (William Mills) Warrant Officer Class 11, Australian Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers attached to the 2/3rd Field Regiment, 1 game for the Saints 1937.


References:
"Heroes with Haloes, St Kilda’s One Hundred Greatest" - Russell Holmesby
"Fallen the Ultimate Heroes- Footballers who never returned from war" - Jim Main and David Allen. Crown Content.
"The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers" - Russell Holmesby and Jim Main. Crown Content.
"Anzac to Amiens" - C E W Bean.
"First World War" - Martin Gilbert. Harper Collins
Australian War Memorial Archives. www.awm.gov.au
"Gallipoli" - Les Carlyon. Pan McMillan
"The Great War" - Les Carlyon. Pan McMillan
Australia Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website
AFL Record Round 5 April 25-27, 2003 Article, “Honoured at Last” by David Allen.
AFL Record Round 4 2006 21-25 April 2006
AFL Record Round 5 2007 25-29 April 2007
Paul Daffy: http://www.australianrules.com.au/2004stories/daffeysoldiers.html "Commando Double Black: A Historical Narrative of the 2/5th Australian Commando Squadron" - A. Pirie. From the website www.gould.com.au
National Archives of Australia- The Collection
"The Western Front Diaries" - Jonathan King, Simon and Schuster
"The Ode comes from For the Fallen" a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon and was published in London in the Winnowing Fan; Poems of the Great War in 1914.
"Fromelles" - Patrick Lindsay, Hardie Grant Books

If you would like to contact Allan please send him an email to takeitforgranted@hotmail.com