V. C. CORNER AUSTRALIAN CEMETERY

Fromelles

Nord

France

General Directions: Fromelles is a village 16 kilometres west of Lille and VC Corner Australian Cemetery is 2 kilometres north-west of Fromelles on the road to Sailly.

On the morning of 19 July 1916, after a preliminary bombardment, the 5th Australian and 61st (South Midland) Divisions undertook what is officially known as the Attack at Fromelles. The 61st Division attack failed in the end, with the loss of over 1,000 officers and men out of 3,410 who took part in it. The Australian left and centre reached the German trenches and held their second line during the day and night, but the right was held off by a fierce machine-gun barrage and only reached the front line in isolated groups. The action was broken off on the morning of 20 July, after the 5th Australian Division had lost over 5,000 officers and men. It was the first serious engagement of the Australian forces in France, and the only one to achieve no success. V.C. Corner Cemetery was made after the Armistice. It contains the graves of over 400 Australian soldiers who died in the Attack at Fromelles and whose bodies were found on the battlefield, but not a single body could be identified. It was therefore decided not to mark the individual graves, but to record on a screen wall the names of all the Australian soldiers who were killed in the engagement and whose graves were not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, commemorates almost 1,300 Australian casualties.

Casualty Details: Australia 410, Total Burials: 410

258 Private

John Morley

31st Bn. Australian Infantry,  A. I. F.

20/07/1916

Memorial reference - 3.

Private John Morley was my Great, great Uncle. His real name was William John Howard. He was born in Yambuk, Victoria, in 1869. He was the seventh child and second son of John and Sarah Howard. Little is known of his early life. He never married and had no children. His family had not had contact with him for many years when my Grandfather received this postcard from him just before he left for France. The card read; "Oct. 31st. Dear Lewis, with luck from your Uncle. Jack Morley, A coy. 31st. Batt. No. 258." He enlisted in Brisbane as he had lived at Sth. Woodburn, Richmond River. New South Wales for some time. It is and will always be a mystery why he changed his name. He arrived in Marseilles on the 23rd. June 1916 and he was killed at the Battle of Fromelles on the 20th. July 1916. I believe him to be one of the missing Diggers of Fromelles.

Picture courtesy of Anne Betts, great, great, niece of this soldier

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