RETIRED COUPLE GIVE ALL FOR POZIERES' LOST DIGGERS

Lest we forget. Most Australians recite this at least once a year to honour our fallen diggers. But few will go to the lengths Barry Gracey and Yvonne Hall are willing to go to to honour our promise to remember. The retired couple from Coffs Harbour are willing to sell their family home if need be so that thousands of diggers lost in the fields near Pozieres in France can have a memorial and rose garden above their final resting place.

On the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Pozieres you can be part of creating a lasting tribute to the diggers who lay unnamed and unmarked in the fields near the tiny French village of Pozieres.

Barry and Yvonne need help to raise more than $400,000 to complete the ‘Pozieres Memorial Park’, which will include an honour roll listing of the names of all Australian soldiers known to have died in and around Pozieres during the battle, most of whom have no known grave. The pair has already secured more than 14,000 square metres of land where most of the fallen lay and say if they cannot raise the funds from other proud Australians they would sell their family home in Coffs Harbour if need be to finish the memorial.

The inspirational couple, who both served in the Australian Army, are asking ordinary Australians to help honour our fallen at the site where they gave their lives for our country 100 years ago. 

People can buy a special brick to be used in the construction of the memorial garden or donate to the project.  Each $50.00 brick can be endorsed with the donor’s name or message of respect that will forever be part of our promise to remember.

In the past few years Barry has travelled across Australia, sleeping rough beside his car, to tell the story of Pozieres and to sell bricks. More than 3,000 have already been purchased.

The funds raised to date have been used to purchase the massive plot, which surrounds the Australian Memorial at the site of Pozieres Windmill. This area was the object of fierce attack and counterattack in 1916. Over six weeks in 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, Australia suffered 23,000 casualties, more than 6,700 men died in the area of the windmill. In 1993 at the funeral of the ‘unknown soldier’ at the Australian War Memorial, it was soil from the windmill site that was cast over his coffin, such is the importance of this site to our national story.  The inscription on the Australian Memorial at Pozieres simply reads: “The ruin of Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggles in this part of the Somme battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured on 4th August by Australian troops, who fell more thickly on this ridge than any other. “

Barry, who retired from Army as a Sergeant Major, says of the 7,000 killed in the Pozieres battle, 4,112 bodies would never be found because they were most likely destroyed by artillery. He has collated the names of all who fell in the battle and believes the memorial garden will be for many a hallowed place where family and proud Australians can pay respect to our diggers’ courage, sacrifice and service.

The life changing project to create the memorial started in 2006 when the couple first visited the battlefield on the 90th anniversary. Both were deeply moved by the respect afforded our diggers by the 250 villagers of Pozieres, who they say have never forgotten “the diggers who travelled across the world” to liberate their village.  Each day houses fly their Australian flags, and in the fields to the north they pay respect to the 7,000 or so Australians who lay beneath their soil.

In 2010 Barry and Yvonne established a not-for-profit charity – the Pozieres Remembrance Association – with the aim of helping the villagers of Pozieres raise funds to ensure future commemorations. But the couple wanted to do more to honour the fallen and the idea of a permanent memorial and rose garden dedicated to the memory of the thousands of unheralded diggers has taken over the pair’s lives.

Pozieres is on the Australian Remembrance Trail and also contains the Pozieres Memorial within the British War Cemetery. While this cemetery is largely filled with Australian graves, the site does not bear any Australian names. The Australian soldiers who fell in France and whose graves are not known are commemorated on the National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

To join Barry and Yvonne in honouring our promise to remember please visit their web page at www.pozieresremembered.com.au and buy a brick today. It is an act of remembrance that will last forever.