Last Post Service honours battle

THE anniversary of the commencement of the 1917 Battle of Menin Road in Belgium was marked earlier this week in Canberra.

On Tuesday afternoon, 20 September at 4.45pm, Arch of Victory-Avenue of Honour president Garry Snowden participated in a special Last Post Service at the Australian War Memorial, highlighting Ballarat’s connection to the World War One theatre of conflict.

Alongside his wife Marion, Mr Snowden laid a wreath in memory of the 13 men commemorated in Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour who were killed on that day, and the story of one of these servicemen, Alfred Gregory Dale, was read aloud.

“Alfred Dale was educated at the Humffray Street State School, and at the time of his enlistment, he was employed as a carpenter with well-known Ballarat business Ronaldson Brothers and Tippett,” Mr Snowden said.

“Aged just 23, he was killed in action near Polygon Wood, has no known grave, and is commemorated at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ieper [Ypres] in Belgium.”

Alfred Dale is remembered along Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour by tree and plaque number 1947.

John Taylor, Robert Moore, Alfred Hamond, Duncan Robertson, Alfred McConnell, Horace Rintel, Archibald Sneddon, William McGregor, Richard Kincade, Gordon Bishop, Ernest Stone and Charles Saunders are the names of the other local men who were killed on 20 September 1917, also honoured with trees and plaques along the Avenue.

Like Alfred Dale, Mrs Snowden is a former Humffray Street pupil, and was able to represent that school community at the Australian War Memorial.