By GARRY HOWE
EACH year Willem and Margaret Boon gather at the Beaconsfield cenotaph on the Sunday before Anzac Day to listen to the names of the World War I soldiers being read out and their photos being placed around its base, trying to ensure they are not forgotten.
Last year, the well-known local couple went one better and travelled to the battlefields of Ypres in Belgium and Fromelles in France to pay a deeper respect.
Cardinia councillor Brett Owen recalled their journey at this year’s Anzac centenary service on 19 April.
“To see these same names etched into stone thousands of kilometres away, amongst the thousands of headstones in endless rows of fallen soldiers, is one not easily forgotten,” Cr Owen read, on behalf of the Boons.
“None of these men were closely related to us but the bond of our home town makes them family.
“To stand at the base of each memorial and think about these men who never returned to smell the gum trees or watch the water flow in the Cardinia Creek, never to share time with family and friends or join us to sing Advance Australia Fair, saddened us.”
So while on the Western Front Willem and Margaret visited six gravesides of the nine World War I men listed on the Beaconsfield cenotaph and at each they left a reminder of home – a gum leaf from the banks of the Cardinia Creek together with a photo of the creek with the caption Home Amongst the Gum Trees.
Thanks to the generosity of La Trobe MP Jason Wood’s office, they also left a small Australian flag.
“It is difficult to envisage the landscape of today as a battlefield of yesterday, but to stand on the ground where these men fought and fell leaves a feeling of emptiness and emotion.”
Cr Owen said the memories and feelings would stay with Willem and Margaret forever.
He then read the names, as tradition demands, and members of the Beaconsfield Scouts, Beaconsfield Primary School and St Francis Xavier College stood with their photos.
The nine are George Manning, Arthur Bragg, John Christie, James Osbourne, John Tucker, Herbert Harbour, Albert Childs, Edward Dineley and Hugh McNaughton.
