THE STORY OF THE VIRTUAL FROMELLES MUSEUM
Dearest Mother, Father and Helen,
Today I lead my Battalion in our assault on the German lines and I pray God I may come through alright and bring honour to our name. If not I will at least have laid down my life for you and my country which is the greatest privilege one can ask for.
Farewell dear people the hour approacheth.
Love from,
Geoff.
In a little over 14 hours, Geoff McCrae (60th Battalion) and 5533 of his countrymen would be dead or wounded fighting for a stretch of muddy farmland near the German occupied town of Fromelles . Despite the immense sacrifices made that day, the battle of Fromelles remains largely unknown in Australia , a travesty, I hope in some small way, to help rectify.
My initial exposure to Fromelles occurred in 1999 when I was working in a Sydney bookstore. Having spent the morning shelving in the history section I returned there on my lunch break to look over a few of the books I had seen that looked interesting. While flicking through one of them I came across a mention of the casualties at Fromelles. I had always held an interest in military history but this was news to me and so I began to search through the other books for any reference I could find about what had happened. To my dismay the information was difficult to find. Surprised that such a large scale event had been overlooked I began to dig into it further, an interest that has occupied the years since.
In all my reading on the subject I was frustrated by the lack of information I could find about the regular soldiers who took part. Most of the focus is (rightly) centered on the command, with footnotes dedicated to those men who were rewarded for their bravery or produced written accounts of the battle. Yet the Australian Imperial Force was about more than this, it was about the hundreds of thousands of regular men; fathers, sons, brothers, husbands who answered the call and left our shores for uncertain futures in countries they'd only everread about. It was these men I wanted to see memorialised and so I decided to create this museum.
The collection and research of the men featured in these pages has been a rewarding and challenging experience and one that I know is far from over. Each time I hold a medal or look at a photo I feel a connection to these men and a strong desire to see their story told. They may not have been decorated or even wounded, but they never the less played an important part in this country's history.
As I continue my research and interact with visitors to the museum I hope to add more stories, so that future generations can read about these men and get a glimpse into what life (and the world) was like during the First World War. This is one of the main reasons I decided to make the museum a ‘virtual' one, so that the information would be able to reach people wherever they are in the world and that I could also reach younger generations who may never go into a traditional museum.
Although in recent years Fromelles has begun to receive wide-spread coverage in the media and history books I feel we have a long way to go and I hope that my Fromelles museum can help do that. By keeping alive the stories of some of the brave men who “hopped the bags” on that fateful July day almost 100 years ago and championing the education of the Australian public into the battle, I hope to ensure that the 19th of July is never forgotten again.
-Damian Madden, 2009.
Official Army site related to Fromelles.
56th Battalion Unit History Blog
Patrick Lindsay's Official Website
Friends and Family of the First AIF
There are a lot of people to thank for their help with this museum. Amongst them I would like to thank Paddy O'Brien, Neil Smith, Craig Tibbitts, Jack Langly, the folks at the British Medal Forum, Alan and Graeme and everyone in the FFFAIF and all of my friends and family withou whom I wouldn't have been able to do this!