OUT OF THE FIVE Melbourne players lost on the Western Front during the First World War, only one - Clifford Burge - has a named headstone.
He was one of the lucky ones, able to be identified by name. If this was not the case, but the fallen was obviously an Australian, ‘The AIF badge and ‘Soldier Known Only To God’ would be on the headstone.
But, if there was no recovery of bodies, which happened on a lot of occasions, there would be names on the wall - as for the other four.’
Paying tribute to Lugton, Mackie, Rodriguez and Williamson, Dunbar reflected on the fact that ‘These guys didn’t play a lot of games, and they played for other clubs and all that sort of stuff, and they mightn’t have been huge contributors, but I think it’s more the fact that the footy club just needs to make sure that these guys aren’t forgotten. I think we’ve probably got a thing about World War One, where we remember Gallipoli - and rightly so - but the Western Front is probably honoured more by the French and the Belgians than it is by us.’
This was a unique chance for Dunbar, and, coincidentally, for the Club.
As he saw the enormity of Menin Gate and its arch of names in the little town of Ypres, Belgium - ‘there are thousands of soldiers’ names there, and as big as this is, they still didn’t have room for the names of another 11 000 British soldiers…their names are another cemetery…’ - and the towns behind the lines that acted as supply depots for those fighting, it was vital to bring it back to the individual perspective, to the thoughts of the individuals names that are commemorated at eight each night at Menin Gate, and have been each night since 1928, barring a lull during the Second World War, when German forces again took over the town.
When the Last Post sounds, ‘There’s stone cold silence…and the road gets closed off….’ It is a time when the fallen are foremost in everyone’s minds.
Dunbar’s own grandfather, of course, was fortunate enough to return, and ‘resumed his job as electrician with the Melbourne City Council, and helped with the original wiring of the Shrine.’
While Whyte, like so many others who returned, was a ‘troubled soul’, for the five Melbourne players it was stark.
‘They’ve left here and gone there and died in a foreign land, and they never found bodies for four of them. You see those white headstones - rows of them - at every cemetery you go to, and you think - it’s just so stupid, so pointless.’
The redemption is in the chance to commemorate, to share their stories, and to remember.
And so we do, and so we will continue in remembering.
With thanks to the efforts of Dunbar, we can think of Cliff Burge, who came from Elsternwick Juniors and made his senior debut on 25 April 1914. We can celebrate Frank Lugton, who also played cricket for Victoria, and marvel at the tenacity of James ‘Charlie’ Mackie, originally a larrikin wharf labourer. We can remember Percy Rodriguez, encouraged to head east from Western Australia to play the game by Dr Harry Cordner, and we can recall Alf Williamson, known as ‘Lofty’, part of ‘Jacka’s Mob’, who served with distinction at Gallipoli and on the Somme.
They are gone, but not forgotten. We are, even now, remembering them.
He was one of the lucky ones, able to be identified by name. If this was not the case, but the fallen was obviously an Australian, ‘The AIF badge and ‘Soldier Known Only To God’ would be on the headstone.
But, if there was no recovery of bodies, which happened on a lot of occasions, there would be names on the wall - as for the other four.’
Paying tribute to Lugton, Mackie, Rodriguez and Williamson, Dunbar reflected on the fact that ‘These guys didn’t play a lot of games, and they played for other clubs and all that sort of stuff, and they mightn’t have been huge contributors, but I think it’s more the fact that the footy club just needs to make sure that these guys aren’t forgotten. I think we’ve probably got a thing about World War One, where we remember Gallipoli - and rightly so - but the Western Front is probably honoured more by the French and the Belgians than it is by us.’
This was a unique chance for Dunbar, and, coincidentally, for the Club.
As he saw the enormity of Menin Gate and its arch of names in the little town of Ypres, Belgium - ‘there are thousands of soldiers’ names there, and as big as this is, they still didn’t have room for the names of another 11 000 British soldiers…their names are another cemetery…’ - and the towns behind the lines that acted as supply depots for those fighting, it was vital to bring it back to the individual perspective, to the thoughts of the individuals names that are commemorated at eight each night at Menin Gate, and have been each night since 1928, barring a lull during the Second World War, when German forces again took over the town.
When the Last Post sounds, ‘There’s stone cold silence…and the road gets closed off….’ It is a time when the fallen are foremost in everyone’s minds.
Dunbar’s own grandfather, of course, was fortunate enough to return, and ‘resumed his job as electrician with the Melbourne City Council, and helped with the original wiring of the Shrine.’
While Whyte, like so many others who returned, was a ‘troubled soul’, for the five Melbourne players it was stark.
‘They’ve left here and gone there and died in a foreign land, and they never found bodies for four of them. You see those white headstones - rows of them - at every cemetery you go to, and you think - it’s just so stupid, so pointless.’
The redemption is in the chance to commemorate, to share their stories, and to remember.
And so we do, and so we will continue in remembering.
With thanks to the efforts of Dunbar, we can think of Cliff Burge, who came from Elsternwick Juniors and made his senior debut on 25 April 1914. We can celebrate Frank Lugton, who also played cricket for Victoria, and marvel at the tenacity of James ‘Charlie’ Mackie, originally a larrikin wharf labourer. We can remember Percy Rodriguez, encouraged to head east from Western Australia to play the game by Dr Harry Cordner, and we can recall Alf Williamson, known as ‘Lofty’, part of ‘Jacka’s Mob’, who served with distinction at Gallipoli and on the Somme.
They are gone, but not forgotten. We are, even now, remembering them.
