Belgian battlefields’ toll on Ballarat

IT is one hundred and three years this month since sixty-four of the region’s men died fighting near Passchendaele, Belgium during World War One.

Thirty-three of those soldiers died within the first week of October, 1917.

Arch of Victory – Avenue of Honour Committee president, Garry Snowden said the first of those killed was Ernest Gribble from Mair Street.

“He had been educated at the Pleasant Street State School and was working as a tailor when he enlisted in March, 1915,” Mr Snowden said.

“Seventeen-year-old David Powell from Sebastopol died the day after Ernest Gribble, but October 4th saw the death of 24 of our Avenue men in the mud and horror of the fighting at Broodseinde Ridge (near Ypres, Belgium).

“The fact that only two of those 24 men have a known grave gives some indication of the carnage on that battlefield.”

Spencer Day was one of those soldiers; the second son of Ballarat East’s George and Mary Day to die in the war. His brother, William was killed in action four months prior.

“James Peasnell, a former Queen Street State School boy, died of wounds on October 17th.

“In 1912, he had been awarded the Albert Silver Medal for his bravery in trying to rescue fellow miners at the Mount Lyell Mine disaster in Tasmania,” Mr Snowden said.

“Courage on the battlefield had already earned high level bravery awards for Joseph Pearce, Harry Holgate, Lewis Mudie and Henry Williams, who all lost their lives in October.”

Only 23 of the 64 local men who died in this period of 1917 have a known grave.

The remaining 41 have their names recorded on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres.

“Their tree and plaque in our Avenue of Honour affords each of them an individual memorial,” Mr Snowden said.