Delegation Leaves For Dodewaard

April 27, 2014

The South Burnett contingent heading to the Netherlands to mark the 70th anniversary of the death of Murgon World War II hero Flight Sergeant Patrick Tiernan flew out from Brisbane today.

The group, led by South Burnett mayor Wayne Kratzmann and including members of the Tiernan family, Murgon students, RSL representatives and historian Liz Caffery, will visit several war cemeteries in Belgium before heading to Dodewaard for Dutch Remembrance Day on May 4.

Every year of May 4, Dodewaard locals visit the graves of Tiernan and fellow airman Alfred Burns who died when their Halifax bomber exploded mid-air while returning to England after a raid on a Ruhr fuel factory.

South Burnett Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell told the Kingaroy Anzac Day service on Friday the bodies of Tiernan and Burns were only located after a nine-year-old boy in Dodewaard saw the plane come down.

That boy is still alive and will meet with the South Burnett delegation at the Remembrance Day ceremony.

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On May 1, just prior to the Tiernan Memorial Day, the group will travel to the Menin Gate at Ypres, the Buttes New British Cemetery at Polygon Wood and the Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial where they will place red poppies beside the names or graves of the fallen who have South Burnett connections.

These soldiers have remained in silent repose – in marked or unmarked graves or acknowledged only by names inscribed on a memorial wall – for almost a century.

Julie Foley, from the South Burnett Regional Council, has been collecting names and details from local residents who have relatives in one of these three locations in Belgium.

As well, research has been carried out concerning the names on each World War 1 Roll of Honour listed on local war monuments.

Most of the men and women from the South Burnett died at Gallipoli, the Somme in France or in Flanders Fields in Belgium.

Approximately 30 names from the South Burnett are listed on the Menin Gate which means they perished in the appalling battles around Ypres and Passchendaele and their bodies were never found or identified.

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Some of the local soldiers the delegation will be honouring with red poppies:

BLACKBUTT

• Edward Felix Tardent – Private 42^nd Battalion. Died Belgium. July 31, 1917 (18 years)

MURGON

• William George Armstrong – Private 47^th Bn Infantry. Died Belgium June 8, 1917  (43 years)
• Arthur Frank (Alf) Caswell – Private 9^th Bn. Died Belgium October 7, 1917 (22 years)
• Philip Ted Kluck – Private 52^nd Bn Infantry. Died Belgium. September 26, 1917
• Luke Pringle – Lance Corporal 52^nd Bn Infantry. Died Belgium. June 7, 1917 (28 years)
• Charles Harold Raistrick – Private 11^th Company Australian Machine Gun Corps. Died Belgium October 14, 1917 (33 years)

NANANGO

• Francis Delta Atkinson – Private 41^st Bn. Died Belgium. October 5, 1917 (19 years)
• Ernest (G) Hosier – Private 42^nd Bn Infantry. Died Belgium. October 4, 1917
• Harold Fortunatus Hoult – Private 47^th Battalion. Died Belgium, September 30, 1917 (25 years)
• John Hunter – 49^th Battalion. Died September 26, 1917 (21 years)
• William McMonagle – Private 16^th Battalion. Died Belgium. September 27, 1917 (21 years)
• George Sealey – Private 26^th Battalion. Died October 4, 1917 (26 years)

WONDAI

WOOROOLIN

• Christian Johannsen Jessen – Private 47^th Bn Infantry. Died Belgium. June 7, 1917 (25 years)

YARRAMAN

• James William Thompson – Private 41^st Bn. Died Belgium. October 10, 1917

Related articles:

• A Murgon Cobber Remembered In Print
• Delegation Seeks Names Of South Burnett’s Fallen
• Councillors To Honour Murgon War Hero
• School Captains Going To Holland
• Murgon’s War Hero To Be Honoured
• Meet Murgon’s War Hero
• Murgon Hero Remembered

  Council, Murgon