Lost Diggers from the West
The exhibition ‘Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt’ is about to commence a 12-month tour of Western Australia. In a happy coincidence, the Australian War Memorial is delighted to announce the identification of two more diggers from this collection.
They both appear in this photograph that includes battalion mascot Jenny the monkey, which has proven to be a popular image with exhibition visitors.
They are front row, right, 3401 Corporal Thomas Wilkinson James Telfer, a grocer from West Leederville in Perth, and second row, third from left, 3376 Private Francis Xavier Heerey, a telephone mechanic from Kalgoorlie. The service records of both men suggest they had endured their share of the fighting on the Somme through 1916, and fortunately both men eventually returned home.
This brings the total number of identifications in this photograph to six, and an interesting trend is beginning to emerge.
Corporal Telfer is from the 52nd Battalion, and Private Heerey from the 4th Division Signals Company; his two-colour armband distinguishes him as a signalman. Although most of the soldiers in this photograph appear to be from the 52nd Battalion, there is more than one unit represented here. But all the soldiers identified in this photograph so far are from Western Australia, and all commenced their military service as members of the 12th Battalion. Could it be that their western origins brought them together earlier in the war, and when these old mates found themselves together again at Vignacourt they had their photograph taken to mark the occasion?
It is hoped that as more people in Western Australia see these men over the course of the next 12 months, more names can be added to this group of mates, and more pieces in this puzzle will fall into place.